Farrell Mason stepped up to the podium in a “Je t’aime” tee shirt, pantsuit, and warm smile. I’m trying to remember if her long blond hair was down or in a ponytail but that detail escapes me. She’s a part-time minister, author, mother of six, and drop dead gorgeous. I’m not sure how all those things happen at the same time.

She’s a woman who gets your attention.

If you don’t have the chance to hear her speak here in Nashville or elsewhere, I would highly recommend her new book, Soulfull: A Weekly Devotional to Nourish the Mind, Body, and Spirit. It’s a book every bit as lovely as Farrell herself.

Here’s a small selection from one of my favorite chapters, to give you a small taste of what she offers in the way of humor and encouragement…

Chapter 26
Not Another PB&J

The soul is not a mechanical problem to be solved, it’s a living being that has to be fed.
-Thomas Moore

Everything is possible for one who believes.
-Mark 9:23 (NIV)

Many years ago, a wise friend shared an anecdote to help me positively embrace a new chapter in my life and have the courage to make a change.

In the story, a lunch bell rings at noon every day on a construction site. Hammers and nails are exchanged for lunch pails and thermoses. Laughing and cajoling, workmates sit down together on the newly finished retaining wall to partake of their midday meal.

“Not another peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” the foreman, Joe, complains as he opens the wax-paper-enfolded sandwich.

“I hate peanut butter and jelly,” he bemoans, eyeing his co-laborers’ tastier selections.

Day after day, week after week, the bell rings, the crew gathers for lunch, and the foreman opens up his pail to find another peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

“It’s peanut butter and jelly again, daggonit!”

Finally, an exasperated pal barks, “Why don’t you just tell your wife to fix you something else? Tell her you don’t like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and be done with it. Try a meatball sub.”

“What wife?” he says with annoyance. “I ain’t married. I make my own sandwich every day.”

There are circumstances in our lives that we have absolutely no control over. But there are a lot that we do control. If we were to make an honest inspection of our lives, from our personal relationships to the quality of our health to our soul’s well-being, we would see many missed opportunities. Every day we get to make our own metaphorical sandwiches. In the grand design of this glory project called Life, our free will is a self-destructor or remarkable launcher. We are the CEOs of our unique destinies. Our daily choices can stop us in place, even set us up for defeat. Or guide us into an evolving and love-directed fullness of life.

We desire perfect choices, painless happiness, and complete understanding. Because there are no probabilities that we will ever get these, we can slip into what I call the peanut-butter-and-jelly rut. We repeat patterns that rob us of meaningful lives. We hold on with a vise grip to past hurts and growth-averse perspectives. We participate in relationships that diminish us and others. We allow fear to cancel our hope. We invest in the culture of the day, instead of the desire of our eternal souls. Days turn into years. We stop bearing new fruit.

… I have made many peanut-butter-and-jelly choices in my time, where I either played it safe or operated from fear, knowing there were other paths and then feeling remorse for my lack of creativity, even cowardice.

… Dare to evolve…

[Farrell then offers a prayer…]

Beloved,

Today I pray for a triumph.
A daffodil to push up from the cold earth.
A moment where courage surprises
and I win a round.
Goodness steals the spotlight from despair.
The impossible is
made marvelously possible.
You shine brighter than the tragic.
Hope taps me on the shoulder,
and together we walk into the sun
making great plans.
My soul no longer plays the understudy
but takes center stage.
I fall in love with life;
life falls in love with me.
Heaven in not a mirage
but an oasis within me.

Amen.

Farrell’s final gift in the chapter is a recipe for tartines – a very simple French sandwich that is an easy alternative to PJ&J. I’m trying it this week.

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