As you may know from my wife, I like to cook. Not just open-the-box-and-pour-out-the-hamburger-helper cooking, but hey-this-recipe-has-47-ingredients-that-must-be-prepared-in-exact-order, in-the-light-of-a-full-moon, while-chanting-kum-by-ya cooking. This has accounted for some good dishes and some very, very bad ones. When I’m making something that doesn’t require a masters in the culinary arts, I do pretty well. I’ve even managed to re-create some Emeril recipes and not had them flop. However, once in a while I over-step my bounds.

Some time ago, we went with friends to a local Thai restaurant. I fell in love with Pad Thai. Being that we have not been back, and I have been craving the stuff, I attempted to make Pad Thai a few days ago. I say attempted, because my poor wife ran from the house in terror, dogs in the neighborhood were barking at the smell and even my brother wouldn’t eat it (he said something about not feeling well, but I’m not sure that wasn’t till after I started cooking). Although it was edible (I can eat anything), I can not honorably call my creation Pad Thai. I followed the instructions to the letter, which is not something I do every time. What I ended up with looked more like over-cooked shrimp in brown noodles with little bits of yellow (egg) floating around. In short, a failed plan.

I have discovered through trial and error (much error) that I am best inclined to create dishes that I have some type of background in: things my mother made (and then showed me), flavors I eat on a regular basis and dishes I just won’t give up on no matter how many times I’ve tried. Shocking, I know. If we are growing and enjoy new experiences, our interests will tend to take us further than that we grew up with. We expand, we try new things, we have new experiences, and in some cases, we try to re-create those experiences.

I would not know how to boil water had my mother not shown me how first (love you Mom!). I would not have known how to create the best burger in the world without my wife (love you too!). Everything, I have learned to cook, whether through technique or ingredients, someone else showed me how. This is my culinary growth.

Our spiritual growth is no different. We must have someone to lead us, even if they are only one step further along than we are. We need mentors that have “been there and done that,” so that hopefully we don’t end up making a mess that we then have to eat. Without mentors we would surely stagnate and fall away from God.

I am blessed to belong to a church filled with such people; people willing to lead where they can, willing to share experience. I am also blessed to belong to a very diverse small group; a group that regularly helps push me closer to God. Without both of these blessings, I guarantee that my walk with God would not be what it is for me.

I still love Pad Thai, but before I try to make it again myself, I’ll find someone who’s done it before. I suggest the same for anyone trying to get to God without a church and a mentor. Don’t forget that you can be a mentor too; you may have more to contribute than you know. There’s only one recipe for God, and it’s very difficult to make on your own.

You’ll have to pardon me now, I have to go get my antacids.