FAITH 101: The Shawarma Sandwich

CAST YOUR MIND BACK...

to a time when you were young and hungry.

Or if you're still young like me, back to when you were hungry.

I'm sure we've all been in that situation where we're so hungry, we could almost eat sand😵 ( although not advisable in any flavour whatsoever) and there's no actual meal-status food in our fridges. So what do we do? Especially when you still live in your mother's house like me and have no money of your own to order some Dominoes in.
Or even in some cases when there is real food available but it isn't the real food we like, for those of us blessed with choice?

Well, the answer simple👌. People like us, in either category, we inspect and pick out the odd bits and pieces available to us, toss them together on a plate and come out with an unconventional yet edible and pretty delicious combo that'll do just as good a job at satisfaction as any 5-star mummy-cooked meal. 

Good examples could be yam and butter, rice and ketchup or egusi soup, Golden Morn and ice cream, egg fried in ketchup, beans and okra soup. It all really depends on your taste buds and your personal preferences. (P.S. All those examples aren't entirely from me😂 My friends gave me some as well).

(Side-note: those of us that went to secondary school in Nigeria would understand the idea of "concoctions" the most)

Again, there are some combos that don't exactly end up tasting 5-star; more like end up making that sand option sound stellar all of a sudden. No one is born a 5-star chef the same way people are born singers or actors, so it's nothing to be ashamed of if like me, you've ever made a food concoction that nearly gave you a concussion (LOL, that might sound impossible but wait till you eat something that makes you faint and take a hard hit to the head on the downward journey, then rethink that impossibility once again).

The moral lesson here isn't to avoid experimenting. Like I said in my previous post, THE PILOT POST, you can't say whether the soup is sweet or not until you taste it. Although that does mean you should know the difference between soup and slime; even if you're offered soup that is brown, and slime that is coloured gold, common sense that might not be common should at least be able to extend to your sense of taste and help you know which to choose and which to decline.

The moral lesson here is that we are all human and we all tend to be hungry; it is that hunger that if and only if channelled properly, can drive us to seek beyond convention, think outside the box and delve into our creativity in order to find unconventional, extraordinary solutions to our hunger where ordinary solutions aren't within reach or just won't cut it. This is the secret behind most successful entrepreneurs, scientists, inventors, artists, chefs, businessmen and women and successful people in general today.

This, dear reader, is also the secret behind faith.

I found myself severely hungry on a day when I was the only one home and none of the cooked meals in the fridge were of any interest to me because I'd eaten them the day before and the day before that and the day before that one and so on and on. I was in the mood for a shawarma, simply and plainly. Unluckily, I didn't have sufficient cash or transportation to get one.

So my mind began to transcend. Towards the available tidbits in the fridge it went and I figured: a shawarma is made up of bread, meat, a sauce consisting of mayo and ketchup, and a couple of vegetables. Of course we didn't run a Drumstix in the house so we didn't have all those at hand. But...

There were bread rolls in the fridge; sausages weren't a bad substitute for the grilled meat (maybe not as spicy or juicy, but oh well, I wasn't a beggar with a choice); there was mayonnaise but no ketchup, however ketchup is tomato sauce so I sliced up a couple of cherry tomatoes and voila!; and then instead of cabbage, I used lettuce.

A lot of improvisation, I know. But after microwaving and warming up everything together the best I could and combining it all on my plate, I had something almost as good as a real shawarma. I'd made myself a Shawarma Sandwich, at no cost at all and with next to no effort whatsoever except the mental extra mile it took to come up with something I know they definitely don't sell at Drumstix. I'd channelled my hunger into my creativity vault and unlocked it to get myself what I wanted.

How does this make it the secret behind faith?

Before that day, I'd never eaten a Shawarma Sandwich before. Mama Kato's Shawarma was always handy for shawarma-craving situations like these. But that day I was alone and hungry and craving, and with no prior experience of the Shawarma Sandwich, I took to the resources at hand and still made it anyway, believing that it would still taste good anyway.

And believe me, that sandwich was amazing💖.

If I'd let myself be scared that my sandwich idea could end up tasting so horrible that I'd faint at the first bite and end up breaking my head all in the name of food, I would never have discovered the true tastiness of my Shawarma Sandwich. But I went on with the faith that it would be alright, and even if it wasn't, there was always another plate of beans and stew waiting for me as backup. 

So here's where I preach my preach. Never let your fear overshadow your faith. In fact, channel that fear, that uncertainty, that hunger, all those things that you think are wrong with you into your faith. Bring them before God so He can help you unleash your wealth of power and creativity that he has blessed you with to achieve marvellous things. This should be your spiritual food chain:

Fear/Hunger➝ Faith ➝ Greatness

Greatness in your beliefs.

Greatness in school.

Greatness at your work.

Greatness in your goals and achievements.

Greatness in life, love and happiness.

Greatness in God.

Greatness in the end.

Also, see how I made an improv-shawarma by carefully considering the real ingredients and how to replace them with what I had?

The bible is our shawarma, the word of God are the real ingredients and reality is our sandwich. Take some time out to read the word, even if it's only a little. It'll help if you're ever stuck in a situation even more dire than a shawarma-craving because you can carefully consider the knowledge that the bible has to offer and re-place it into your reality to give you good guidance that will produce extraordinary results.

P.S. These are my own personal theories that I hope will help you. But remember what I said about tasting soups?

Now cast your mind back again to a time when you were hungry and recall what you did. Let my experience be your shawarma to guide you into building new, "sandwich" theories of your own and begin your own greater spiritual journey from there.

xoxo

The wrItor✨