The Parable of the Popcorn Bowl

I have been eating popcorn all of my life.  Much of it from this very popcorn bowl.  This was my grandpa’s popcorn bowl.  I remember being over at my grandparents house.  My grandpa would say that he was going to pop some corn.  He would go upstairs to the kitchen and leave me in the den.  I would wait in anticipation as he popped a pot of popcorn.  He would come back with the popcorn in this bowl.  I would sit down beside him and eat it with him.  It would be salty with a touch of pepper.  The grease would run from my hand down to my elbow.  The wait was worth what I got.

Now days, here is how many of us usually get our popcorn.

Here is what getting to the point of eating popcorn is like now.  I take the bag out of the box.  I take the plastic wrap off from around the bag.  I put the bag in the microwave and press the Popcorn button.  Two minutes and fifty-five seconds later, I have popcorn.  I can be eating popcorn within 3.5 minutes.

It’s not nearly as romantic, is it?

We don’t really like to wait anymore, do we?  We want our popcorn now, not later.  We are an impatient bunch.

Let’s admit it.  We don’t stop with popcorn, do we?  It’s that way with most things.  It’s that way with our faith.

We don’t want to wait for the oil to be poured in the pot.  We grimace at having to scoop popcorn from a container to the pot.  We don’t want to stand there and shake the popcorn as it pops so that it doesn’t stick and burn.  We certainly don’t want to clean up the mess that comes with popping corn on the stove.

No, we want instant gratification.  We believe that our faith should be mature early in life.  Heck, we believe our faith should be mature at forty-two.  Sorry, it doesn’t always turn out that way.

Faith doesn’t show up mature and strong.  It starts small.  We may not see growth as it happens.  We just see the corn as it gets hot in the oil.  it sizzles.  It warms. It prepares to explode and pop.  It’s all part of the process.

You don’t always get all of that with a bag of popcorn.  Sometimes it take a bowl of greasy, stove popped popcorn.

Do you get impatient?  Do you want your popcorn now instead of later?