The Ketchup Theology

Something you have to know about Linwood House. There really aren’t any rules. Except that is at the table: no ketchup bottles, no mustard bottles and no pop bottles! That just isn’t done here.

Our guests Anne, Nathan, Jackie and Beth are visiting and one of them wasn’t aware of this rule and wouldn’t you know it the ketchup bottle came to the table. Not the proper thing at all.

Monday was another “table talk” day. Nathan wandered off to putter at various things while Anne, Gwen, Jackie, Beth and I shared stories, ideas, questions – you know, just “table talk”. Jackie had had this marvelous vision in the night and God had revealed some future plans to her. It was amazing, marvelous, awesome and then right at the end it was dashed, all because of her mistake at putting the ketchup on the table! (She thought it was dashed). Those little mistakes/distractions we make that consume and overpower all the beauty and wonder of the amazing that happens in our lives. How do they get such power over us?

Just some snippets of the conversations:
- The story of Hagar, “I know where you’ve been, I know where you are and I know where you are going. I am with you”.
- What parts of our story are debilitating?
- What parts of that are we willing to bring into the Light, be vulnerable and allow healing?
- Meekness is about being a risk taker, speaking with the authority of the Spirit, not silencing the mind, body and heart.
- How do we create new patterns to move forward? Practice and being vulnerable.

Usually on Monday afternoon a friend of Gwen’s comes over to share her heart, be mentored and know she is in a safe place. Anne, Pastor Anne as we call her, is a great friend and mentor of Gwen’s. She read to us from Philippians 3 and opened the discussion of how we experience the fellowship of His sufferings and the power of the resurrection. Resurrection morning was not a loud celebration, in fact it was a silent power. Anne shared a few stories of her life with us. On a visit to Brazil she felt overwhelmed by the despair and suffering of the children and had voiced that she wished her heart was just a little colder in order to not be overwhelmed by the pain of the others. Her translator reminded her that “if you have a broken heart, you leave a piece of it everywhere you go. Let God continue to break your heart.” How many pieces of our brokenness have become pieces of Jesus love to others?

“We don’t need to bring people to Jesus as much as we need to bring Jesus to people.”

Sitting down to a turkey dinner, Jackie brought a beautiful little jug to the table – with ketchup! Those little things that niggle may follow us around, but if we place them in the Light and along with the beauty of life they will have no power to distract us. That is the ketchup theology!