One Easy Dinner = One Happy Family

I love to cook almost as much as I like to eat. Notice I said almost! But what I love even more then cooking and eating is when I make dinner and everyone likes it. This doesn't happen very often. In fact, it hardly ever happens, but tonight's dinner was a winner, and it was super easy and ridiculously cheap. We had French Dip Sandwiches and fries with sauce (ketchup), and here's the breakdown:

2.5 pound beef roast, $7.46 (got it on sale and don't know what kind it was)
1 can beef broth (Swanson's, but I used coupons, probably .50 cents)
1 envelope french onion soup mix (Wal-Mart brand, .97 cents)
1 package sub rolls ( .99 cents at bakery outlet)

French fries prepared according to directions ($1.97)

Put the meat in the crock pot, pour the can of broth over it and sprinkle the soup mix on. Cook on low all day. I cooked mine on high because my meat was mostly frozen when I put it in the crock pot.

That's it. No really, that's it. I didn't put any pepper or salt or anything else. I didn't sear my meat beforehand.

When we were ready to eat, I smooshed the meat apart and let it sit while I made the french fries and baked the bread (at the same time, of course). When rolls were hot, I sliced them and put a couple fork-fulls of meat on them and served them with a small dish of au jus. Voila! French dip sandwiches!

Real Passion

A couple of days ago, I began a 250-mile drive home from work (no, I don't drive this every day, just occasionally when my job calls me away from home), and was listening to a woman speak on a Christian station. The reception wasn't the best, but I wasn't getting any other stations, so I tuned in to what she had to say. She talked about the day she discovered the condition AIDS was leaving Africa and how disgusted (I'm pretty sure she used that word) she was with herself that she was oblivious to what was going on there. She then went on to say something along the lines of "you have to be disgusted in order to be a disciple of Christ." Now wait just minute! I didn't understand her logic and tried changing the channel again. Nothing. So, I listened to her talk about AIDS-affected orphans in Africa and orphans in the Ukraine who had never been held their entire lives. You could hear the sadness in her voice as she described these situations, but I wasn't moved by her emotion.

Later, it bothered me that I didn't feel much when listening to her, so I thought about why that might be. Is it because I don't care about orphans in Africa or the Ukraine? Well, no, that's not really the reason. Am I a cold, heartless witch? Well, the answer to that might depend on who you ask, but overall, no, not that either. After all, I do have children of my own and know how special each and every little soul is, and it does sadden me that there are children out there who have never been held, who have never had a storybook read to them at night. So why was I not caring about such a noble cause as abandoned children?

Then it dawned on me. The reason I was not touched by her sermon like I thought I should be, is that God didn't make me to be passionate about the world's orphans. He made her to be passionate for them, and His work with these orphans are a job for her (I wish I could find out her name so she'd be more than just a pronoun). I was not designed to help these children out the way she was. God made me differently, and my passions lie elsewhere. One day I will write a book about what I am passionate about, but until then, what did God create you to be passionate about? What drives you to be a better ambassador for Him?