Cast Iron Chicken And Blessings
Something I've learned through the years about cooking chicken in cast iron is that it needs to cook on one side until it's ready to flip. Well . . . when is it ready? Answer: When it's ready. Chicken sticks to the cast iron and if you flip it too soon, some will stick to the skillet and you'll be disappointed with the results. If you're patient, it will eventually release on its own leaving a beautiful brown external and perfectly cooked internal. Though the smell and visual may be enticing, let it do its own work!
I'll tell you a little bit about Carla. Carla is a bartender. She is the beautiful daughter of a white mother and African American father. She's from Maryland and followed her ex-fiancee to a small Tennessee town. He then dumped her and left her in a depressed little place where African Americans are a rare occurrence. Carla has amazing tattoos. When asked about them, she goes almost silent. "They are a private scrapbook." This wasn't the first time I asked about them. The first encounter she was even more deflective. I didn't press. Over the course of our third encounter she opened little by little and explained her Pentecostal background, her commitment to Wiccan ideology, and the tattoo on her right arm representing her departed grandmother. I didn’t press further. She hasn't let go of the skillet yet. When will she be ready? When she is ready. If she is ready.
I’ve wrestled a bit with what it means to speak a blessing over someone. As I've been processing that idea of blessing being a "granting someone favor," I'm beginning to realize that blessing can be shown in many forms. Yes, you can actively say a blessing over someone; i.e. "You are dearly loved." Is there more to how a blessing is bestowed?
Maybe you can passively give a blessing just be being in someone's presence with a listening ear. I hope I have been a blessing to folks like Carla. I'm there with no agenda but to listen. At least, that's the agenda I want to embrace. I hope that's a favor to her. If we are honest, I suppose we all need someone to whom we can tell our stories. We long for a blessing from others as a salve to our deepest wounds. My guess is that Carla has turned her insides to the outside in the form of tattoos, not as a personal scrapbook, but as a testimony reserved only for someone (Someone) she can trust with her deepest secrets. That sounds much like what's under my own skin desiring to be confessed, accepted, forgiven, and known.
A third way we bestow a blessing is through body language. If I am distracted and looking over the shoulder of the person speaking, I'm not sure they feel I am honoring them with a favor. I doubt I'm being favorable. But if I give an affirming and empathetic nod, or touch their arm, or even do something as simple as a peace sign as I'm leaving, maybe I've delivered favor. But are these seemingly mundane and simple gestures really blessings? Do they convey favor as God would convey His favor over us in pronouncing His benediction of Christ to us? I suspect so. As Christians we are His ambassadors. We speak and act and gesture on His behalf. We are united to Him and He to us in such an inexplicable way that our very lives are an extension of Him being lived out in the world to others. Perfectly? Certainly not. But maybe He redeems our failures and uses them for His kingdom's sake, our sake, and for the sake of others? My hope is that I am always learning and growing and finding God's grace deeper and greater than I have ever imagined. I hope that when the chicken is ready to release from the skillet, that, if I do not get to witness it, that I was available to be a small part of the process.