by Elizabeth | Jul 15, 2015 | Learning Story
In 10 days, our family will celebrate the second wedding of one of our four children within a 7- week period. It has been a summer of fresh delight; it has been a summer of unlooked-for loss; it has been a summer of changing-story sorrows; it has been a summer of new-beginning joys.
What does that have to do with Living Story Bible Study Guides?
I share that to explain why it is CRUCIAL to know our stories, and to understand them in the context of the grander narrative God is writing in our lives. Today on its blog, P &R Publishing highlights the three Bible studies I’ve written on the topic of living in God’s story of grace.
As I take a long pause in a few weeks after the final toast has been made, I will spend some time looking at my story. In Learning God’s Story of Grace, I described the “story of grace” the Bible tells, what some theologians call “redemptive history.” I also explain how this structure can be so helpful in remembering what God has done in our story and looking for what he might be doing right now.
Here are those four parts and a few questions I might use to further consider my current story. Why not try it with a story of your own?
The 4 Parts & a Few Questions
1. Creation tells us who we are, male and female, created in the image of God. The “chapter” of Creation is characterized by “shalom,” peace, wholeness, harmony – everything is “the way it ought to be.”
Question about my current story:
- A big one for me right now is “who am I” as I send two of our children out to form new families of their own?
- Another is, “describe the shalom,” the beauty, the echoes of Eden in this story.
2. The Fall tells us why we struggle with sin and live in frustration. In the Fall, shalom is wrecked; sin has divided what was meant to be together; beauty is distorted; wholeness is deconstructed.
The Fall is compounded when we we multiply sin as we try to restore shalom by turning to people, places, or things that make us feel significant – what the Bible calls idols.
Questions to ask:
- What has gone wrong, and why? What sin has divided relationships?
- What are the idols underneath this sin? What am I worshipping more than worshipping God? (I’ve really had to sit in this question as I see my “control-freak-mama” persona growing monstrously large and wreaking all sorts of havoc.
Which is why I’m so grateful for the next part:
3. Redemption tells of a sinless Savior who rescued us from sin and death by living, dying and rising. This wild story of God’s grace means that anyone who trusts in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection for their salvation is transformed to live the free life we were made to live.
In this chapter of the story, shalom is partially restored: relocation, reconciliation, and re-creation characterize our lives, even though we await the final day when restoration will be complete.
Questions to ask:
- Where do I see God redeeming? (Even in the midst of this story, I have to stay close to the good news that Christ has forgiven my sin, since it’s easy to collapse in the Fall of condemnation).
- What new things, new relationships, is God building in the midst? How is he shaping me (and my family) (and yes, it does feel like the potter banging hard on that clay:-)!
4. Consummation describes the ‘grand finale’ of the story, tells us that all our endings are transformed into the beginning of an unending story.
Questions to ask:
- Even as things do not go perfectly with out summer weddings, how does the hope of the final Wedding Feast bring beauty and light into these moments?
- What will this broken/redeemed relationship look like in that final day when we are all the perfectly gleaming bride, robed in his righteousness, resting in his shalom?
As we ask such questions that the Living Story Bible study series raises about our lives, the outcome is NOT about us. It’s really about seeing God’s glory even more clearly and loving him more fully for the love he has already shown us in Christ. It also helps us to discover more about what God is calling us to — to let go of, to move into. Please check out the series or contact me about coaching if you’re interested in exploring this life-transforming exercise further. And stay tuned — new coaching groups forming in the fall. Please let me know if you’re interested!
by Elizabeth | May 6, 2014 | Learning Story
Story Feasts are an essential part of each Living Story Bible study, so it makes sense to share some favorite “Foods to Feast By” on this blog (but don’t expect me to go all “food blogger” on you — as you will see by the amateur iphone photos:-). If you have a feasting food you’d like to share, please let me know in the comment section, and your recipe may be featured here.
Here is the story and the recipe of our version of “Mick’s” Chocolate Pie, the best chocolate cream pie ever.
It was the day after 33 hours of travail, a ludicrously long pitocin induction that brought our first child into the world — they did stuff like that in the late 80’s….and I was starved. My meal of choice?
A guacamole burger and a slice of chocolate cream pie from Mick’s, a favorite Atlanta restaurant.
Mick’s version was no stiff, plasticine cafeteria chocolate cream pie. This heavy pie held a deep double chocolate custard firmly set in a chocolate wafer and butter crust, slathered with fresh whipping cream and topped with chocolate shavings. (Sorry for the repetition of chocolate in that sentence, but chocolate is never redundant!)
You can bet my husband delivered this calorie-packed reward to me bedside! I have an old picture, but the pie is out of focus because my husband was actually focusing on my fluid-filled face, which I’m not humble enough to reveal here:-)!
If Mick’s Chocolate Cream Pie was the food I wanted to feast by the day after our first child was born, you can imagine how thrilled I was when its recipe appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. According to urban myth, a disgruntled former employee stole the recipe and sold it to the paper.
Whether that story is true or not, I couldn’t wait to make my own Mick’s pie for a feast. One Friday afternoon, I hurried home after a full day of teaching, excited to prepare this famed recipe for my friends. I had already purchased the supplies, so I launched into prep, following the instructions precisely.
As you will see, it’s not an easy process, but the rich taste is well worth the labor! An hour later, I had finished: chocolate pie crust — check; chocolate filling — check; whipping cream ready to be whipped — check; chocolate shavings ready to top whipping cream — check….
Only then did I notice one essential instruction that should have been at the beginning (in my version it is:-) — you know the part where it tells you the baking time or chilling time? Oops. 24 hours. About 3 hours later, it was time to serve the — chocolate soup. Every single person lapped it up, and a few wanted seconds.
Technically, this is not a chocolate cream pie — it’s a chocolate ice cream pie made for a birthday, and usually the entire pie is covered with whipping cream and the smiley face is chocolate, but they look similar…
Future versions were chilled 14-24 hours, and the Turnage’s Mick’s chocolate pie became a family feasting favorite. Eventually my girls took up the pie mantle and added their signature smily face drawn with a finger traced through the whipping cream. One of my daughters even decided it would be her feasting food for Thanksgiving because she doesn’t like apple pie (which my older daughter makes). (Did I mention that from the time they were about 10, every child had an assigned dish to make (with some help:-) for Thanksgiving? I’m just not one of those big-hearted women who likes to spend the whole day in the kitchen by herself while everyone else has fun!).
I dare you to try it. Make it for a mom for Mother’s Day — or, if you’re a mom, see if you can get your kids to make it for you! (Not recommended if you have children under 10!)
Oh, and CHILL AT LEAST 14 HOURS — 24 IS BEST!
Turnage’s Mick’s Chocolate Cream Pie
Ingredients:
Filling
1 1/4 C. sugar 4 C. whole milk
7/8 C. flour 4 egg yolks
1/8 t. salt 1 1/4 C. choc. chips, melted
1/2 C. cocoa 1/2 t. vanilla
1/4 C. butter
Crust:
1 1/2 C. crumbled choc. wafers (Best are Nabisco ice cream wafers in sundae section of grocery — our grocery only carries them certain times of year, so we stock up when they have them.)
2 T. conf. sugar (or regular)
4-5 T. melted butter
Topping:
heavy whipping cream: 4 oz.
candy bar for chocolate shavings: I sometimes use Ghirardelli squares.
Make the pie crust first so it can start chilling:
- Stir sugar and butter into crumbs until well-blended.
- Pat into 10-inch pie pan. Refrigerate before filling.
The pie:
- In an 8-quart cooking pot, mix sugar, flour, salt, and cocoa. If you’re really ambitious, sift them first. Slowly add milk and stir well. Cook over medium-low heat until scalded (film begins to form on bottom), always stirring.
- Separate eggs. You want the yolks. Beat yolks. Slowly stir in 1 cup of hot milk mixture. Add this back to the rest of the mixture in pan and continue stirring and cooking over low heat. (If you’re really ambitious, use the whites in another, healthier recipe:-).
- Melt chocolate chips (I put them in a glass measuring cup in the microwave on medium heat, stirring after 30 second intervals, but you could also do the glass bowl over small cooking pan filled with water method — if you don’t know what I’m talking about, google it).
- Add melted chocolate chips to pan mixture; continue stirring and cooking on low heat until thickened.
- Remove from heat.
- Add vanilla and butter; stir. (Sometimes I forget this part, so I’m bolding it).
- Pull that chocolate wafer crust out of the frig, and refrigerate 12-24 hours.
- Before serving, place whipped cream on top and garnish with chocolate shavings.
