Lasagna, The Football Team, and Jesus

You guys, I was so nervous about this. Which is ridiculous, because I love to cook.

I love hosting parties. I love planning events. I have planned events for hundreds of people. Thousands, even.

But apparently, there is one demographic that strikes fear into the heart of an otherwise confident event planner:

Fifty varsity football players. 😂 🏈

I had volunteered to make dinner for the team, and suddenly I was doing calculations I had never before considered. How much does a teenage boy actually eat? More importantly: How much do FIFTY teenage boys eat after football practice?!

These are not normal stomachs. These are bottomless caverns wearing shoulder pads. I decided on lasagna. Lasagna is filling, right? Pasta. Meat. Cheese. More pasta. More meat. More cheese. DENSE FOOD.

Surely lasagna could defeat them.

So off I went to Walmart for supplies. I found the lasagna noodles—on the VERY top shelf. Of course.

At 5'2", I assessed the situation and quickly determined that there was absolutely no scenario in which I was retrieving those noodles with dignity.

So I found a stocking guy. “Excuse me, could you help me get those lasagna noodles?”

He reached up and grabbed a box. “No, no,” I said. “I’ll take all of them.” 😂😂😂

I can only imagine what he thought was happening at my house.

I made five insanely huge trays of lasagna. These were not cute little family casseroles. These were industrial-sized slabs of carbohydrates.

I hauled them over to feed the team, still slightly terrified that fifty hungry football players were going to look at my five enormous pans and say,

“Cool. What’s for dinner?” But you know what?

They were wonderful. So polite. So thankful. So kind. And they ate. OH, DID THEY EAT.

But there was enough. We actually did it. We filled fifty bottomless teenage-boy stomachs. At least... for the moment. 🏈😂

And driving home, I kept thinking about those five empty lasagna pans. Because I had spent so much time worrying: Will there be enough?

And isn't that a question we ask God all the time?

WILL THERE BE ENOUGH?

But as funny as the whole thing was, I realized how much energy I had spent worrying about whether I could actually pull it off. 

Would I make enough? Would they like it? Would five gigantic pans really feed fifty football players?

I had taken something I normally love to do—cook for people—and let the size of the assignment make me question whether I could do it. Have you ever done that?

Something gets put in front of you that feels just a little bigger than you are.

A new responsibility. A difficult conversation. An opportunity you’re not sure you're ready for. Someone who needs more from you than you feel like you have to give. And suddenly your mind starts calculating.

Do I have enough time? Enough energy? Enough experience? Enough wisdom? Enough courage?

Sometimes we become so focused on everything we don't have that we forget to look at what God has already put in our hands.

I knew how to make lasagna. I knew how to feed people. I knew how to serve. The assignment was bigger than usual, but that didn't mean I wasn't equipped for it.

And maybe there is something in front of you right now that feels bigger than usual, too. Here's what I want you to remember:

God doesn't have to give you everything you could possibly need for every possible thing that might happen.

He gives you what you need to do the good work in front of you.

That’s why I love this promise:

This Week’s Faith Habit

BRING WHAT YOU HAVE 

Think about one thing in your life right now where you feel like you don't have enough.

Don't just worry about it.

Do something with what you already have.

Give the hour. Make the call. Send the application. Offer the meal. Start with the $20. Write the first page. Invite the person. Take the first step.

Faith is trusting Jesus enough to move with what you have. 

And sometimes you discover that what looked ridiculously inadequate in your hands...

was more than enough in His.

Even if you're feeding fifty football players. 🏈