Just because.. it doesn't mean!

That right there sounds like a pretty meaningless expression.

I take cooking very seriously. I have been told before that when I am in the kitchen it's like I am doing an exam- I can be super intense!(sometimes). The husband was blessed by God with an amazing appetite but a rather analytical palate. He can tell when I missed an ingredient and I don't mean something as major as salt but just know, he can tell! I feel bad (really sad) when the final product tastes nothing like what I visualised and believe it or not- this has happened before. More than once. However, I am now a fan of cooking competition shows like Master Chef and I have learnt one thing:  a kitchen disaster does not mean that I am not a good chef!

Many of my friends know that some of my years in Med school were particularly hard. I remember walking into my father's office in my 4th year crying and telling him that I was done and wanted to stop doing medicine! He was quite shocked but I explained myself and almost had him convinced. Unfortunately(or fortunately?), all my work was undone when he went home and had a chat with my mum! It was so hard for me to believe it then.. On the days when I sat in the library failing to learn anything from the textbooks. The days when I sat in a tutorial wondering what everyone was talking about. The days on the ward when I wanted to stand at the back and pray that no one asked me a question. The day I was told off by my professor during an exam.. Yes, in those days, I would have found it hard to believe what I now know to be true: Just because I don't know that, it doesn't mean that I am stupid.

Oh how easy it is to let things or other people define us! To let having or not having a great job, money, a husband/boyfriend, things that we consider 'success' to make us come to conclusions about ourselves!

I heard this once: An orange tree is an orange tree regardless of whether it produces oranges or not. Producing oranges does not make it an orange tree. NO!! It produces oranges BECAUSE it already is, an orange tree.

Sometimes, you just need to get up and try again. Keep trying, keep going... Other times you just have to wait for the blooming season and concentrate on maxing whatever season you are in right now. The 'oranges' will come.

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For, 

           “In just a little while,he who is coming will come and will not   

            delay.

”And,

“But my righteous one will live by faith.
    And I take no pleasure
    in the one who shrinks back.”

 My God give us all the grace not to 'shrink back'. Not to shrink from responsibilities just because we failed before, from a chance of a good relationship because of a previous broken heart, applying for jobs because we weren't chosen at previous interviews, praying because it has been 'dry' before.. May we not be the ones that shrink back but those who stand firm in faith and are saved.