Monday, June 11, 2018

Taking out the bitter


My experiences with vegetables growing up were fairly limited. I never had asparagus, or eggplant, or tomatilloes until I was an adult. My experience with squash was limited to boiled summer squash. I never had zucchini. Spinach came in a can and made me gag. 

Peas, broccoli, corn... lots of corn... green beans, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, those are the vegetables I remember. 

I still hesitate in the produce aisle, feeling unsure of myself.

Last week I bought an eggplant. 

Maybe my body is craving some vitamin or attribute in eggplant (aubergine in French... sounds so much better), but it's the first time I remember buying an eggplant.

I brought it home and googled how to prepare it. Eggplant parmesan was the most popular recipe, so I opted for that. 

To prevent bitterness in the eggplant, the instructions said to salt the vegetable after slicing it. Purportedly, the salt draws out the bitterness. My end recipe wasn't bitter, so I guess it worked, and it made me think.

The Bible says believers are "the salt of the earth." Are we supposed to be taking the bitterness out of the world around us? We've been taught that we're to purify and sanctify, yes, but what if that purification has less to do with making everyone look and sound just like us and more with sucking the bitterness out of their souls? More with applying the salt of the Word and the Spirit (love and mercy) to those around us and just letting it sit and do its work?
Just a thought.




In my newest novella, my heroine, Calico Banks, is an embittered widow.  She has been raising her daughter, Aurora, and running the general store she and her husband planned to open together, all the while knowing someone in town orchestrated her husband's death. The arrival of Pinkerton agent Marshall Franklin, disguised as Frank Marshall, pulls Calico out of her grief enough to return to the present, just in time to have her cabin burned to the ground. As the stakes are raised, Calico will have to find a way to trust Marshall in order to save herself and her daughter.

Niki Turner






2 comments:

  1. Perfect analogy! I love it. I don't see a lot of love in my facebook feed, though a majority of my FB friends would likely consider themselves Christians. We sure do a lot of complaining. Thankful for things like vacation photos, book releases, pets and photos of grandchildren to balance out the negative. Yes, the negative is there, and we can't ignore it, but "pour a little sugar on it, baby' might be the better option. Love, grace, compassion seems to take more work , doesn't it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It really, really does. It's like swimming upstream.

      Delete

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