The reasons thereof...

Did you know that a boning knife will do an outstanding job of cutting a cold hard boiled egg?  I didn't.  I have primarily used mine to cut raw meat, specifically when trimming chicken since boneless, skinless chicken breasts still have bits undesirable to me on them.

Today, I made a salad: wild greens, grilled chicken, hard boiled egg, shredded white cheddar cheese, diced avocado, bacon, and white balsamic dressing.  I used the boning knife to cut the chicken, then figured that I would go ahead and try it on the egg.  I was surprised how well the boning knife worked on the cooked chicken, but was very, very surprised at how well the knife worked on the egg.

I have lost track now, how long I have had my set of Henckels knives.  I do know that it took many years to purchase my set.  I love them. My first two knives were a gift from my mother: the tomato knife and the boning knife.  I thought the tomato knife was a joke, since I do not eat tomatoes, but it is rather useful. I am not sure what came next, but I do know that my brother gifted me the eight steak knives early on in my knife collecting journey.  My deepest desire was for the Santoku knife, which I saved for a long time.  More than two decades later, my set (the Pro S) lacks but one piece: the cleaver.  I have never bought one because I am not sure how I would ever use it, but the empty slot in my butcher's block sort of bugs me.

I use the Santoku, bread, and tomato knives the most, followed by the boning knife.  Rarely do I use the paring knives or the butcher knife.  Of course, the steak knives are used daily, as are my kitchen scissors.  I do use the sharpener frequently, however sometimes it is merely to dance about the kitchen weilding it as a sword, imagining I am battling a dragon.  I am rather sure Henckels did not intend it for that use, but it sure does look like a sword.

All this is to say, though, that lately the reasons thereof for what I do oft come to mind.  By that, I mean I have started wondering why it is that I do things the way that I do.

Take marinating chicken for example.  My entire cooking life, I have placed chicken breasts on a plate, drizzled olive oil on them, sprinkled some seasoning, flipped them over, and repeated the process.  Just recently, I decided to roast baby red potatoes and grill chicken for a meal.  Out came the super large mixing cup in which I tossed the diced potatoes in olive oil and herbs.  When those were spread on a tray and placed in the oven, I got out a plate for the chicken.  Then, thinking about how much I loathe washing dishes by hand, I decided to just marinate the chicken in the measuring cup since it was already dirty but with the same olive oil and herbs I planned to use on the chicken.

Oh, my goodness!  I was truly startled to taste the difference in the chicken when it was done.  You see, drizzling does not really coat the entire chicken.  Tossed around in the mixing cup (or a bowl would do), the entire piece of chicken was covered with oil and herbs.  Grilled this way, the chicken was encrusted and savory and surprisingly delicious.  Ever since then, I have been marinated my chicken in that large mixing cup.  Just think of all the years I could have been eating better chicken but didn't because I was preparing it the way I always had, never stopping to consider if there might be a better way to go about it.

So, too, with the boning knife.  As long as I have owned that knife, I have only used it for cutting raw meat until today.  It was sitting in the dish rack, which is I why I grabbed it.  Normally, I use the tomato knife to cut cooked meat.  The boning knife is for raw meat, yet it sliced through the cooked meat like butter. The boning knife is for meat, yet it diced the eggs quite cleanly, allowing me to cut thin slices without squishing the egg. The boning knife is not for either of the choices I made, yet it did a splendid job at preparing the ingredients for my salad. [Yes, I went on to use it to slice up the avocado and bacon.]

I have had that knife the longest, yet I have primarily wasted its potential, limiting its use to what I thought it was supposed to do. I limited its use without ever really thinking about the reasons thereof for doing so.

Another example is with my spices.  Always.  Always I have kept them in alphabetical order.  Whilst I cook, I oft find myself scanning for a particular spice, trying to ferret out its location among the four magnetic racks I have used for years. [They are stuck on the side of the stove.]  A while ago, since I really do struggle with remembering the particular order of the alphabet (something that is truly distressing to me), I rearranged the spice racks by groups.  On the first rack are all of my Italian herbs.  Next come the Mexican spices.  After that are Indian ones.  Finally, on the lowest shelf are the ones I rarely use.  Now, whenever I cook, I do not have to hunt for spices. I can just grab what I need without hardly looking at them...just grab the group I need.

Making this change has lessened my angst in cooking (though it has not helped with burning my meals).  I really struggle with reminders of how much my brain has changed, how much my cognitive processes have declined.  Making changes, first with the spices and this later encounter with the knives, has made me start to wonder if I should spend more time thinking on the reasons thereof for more of what I do.

When I left the academic world to enter the business one, I was utterly taken aback at the complete dearth of common sense there.  At least in the corporate and non-profit places where I worked, people did things the way they had always been done without really thinking about why.  Much of the time, the way things were done were very inefficient, often time consuming and redundant.  I think that the problem, in a small part, of mission creep (of businesses and organizations straying from their strategic plans) stems from the fact that people will just do things the way they have been done without stopping to think of the reasons thereof.

One tiny example can be seen in office supply closets.  You will find massive amounts of waste there, especially in toner cartridges that are expired or for printers/faxes/copiers that are no longer at the organization and in typewriter ribbons and cartridges.  Things will be ordered because they have always been ordered.  The same vendor will be used because it has always been used.  Never mind that those things are not needed or that their shelf life might be limited.  Never mind that the explosion of online options has made the office supply world very competitive, with companies offering steep discounts and free shipping for businesses and organizations that become regular customers.  Never mind that toner prices can vary widely, so that while a particular vendor might give you cut rate prices on all your other office supplies that vendor will be fleecing you when it comes to toner.

At my last job, I found a place where we could be saving $7,500 a year simply by purchasing our toner at a place other than the chosen office supply vendor.  To me, that is not an insignificant savings, even on a $3 million operating budget.  However, no one cared to make the switch. In fact, the office supplies were all bought at Staples, which is not the best place for a business to be making all of its purchases. Plus, it was pointed out to me that caring about savings in office supplies was not my job.

Another example were these accounting and property management reports that were printed daily or weekly and then discarded.  Many-paged reports printed on one side.  If the organization went to printing two-sided--something easily done on both the printers and the copiers--thousands more would be saved on paper.  However, no one really thought about this.  Or cared.  The reports were printed the way they were always printed and discarded without regard to the gross expense or of the trees, manufacturing, and fuel lost in the production and transportation of that wasted paper.

Those two changes alone could have funded a position for an administrative assistant that was sorely needed.  Such a person would help improve operational organization and free up the time and talent of high level staff who were forced to do their own basic clerical tasks. Even with this dire need, reports were printed the way they were always printed and toner was ordered the way it was always ordered.

I have also started to think about the reasons thereof when it comes to the Church, the mission creep of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) that I have experienced and seen and puzzled over.  In business terms, the Christian Book of Concord is our strategic plan.  Our pure doctrine is laid out, in both simple and fully developed terms, for all to read and understand, from the young child to the oldest person in the pew, from the pastor to the elder to the teacher to the secretary.  Yet things are rather skewed, in my opinion, in the LCMS.

Ask any nominal Lutheran what is at the heart of Lutheranism and I think you will hear the answer: Word and Sacrament.  Clearly this is because our Confessions teach that the way that God comes to us, forgives us, saves us, heals us, sustains us is through the hearing of the Living Word and through the Sacraments, which are made sacraments purely by God's command to join the Living Word to an earthly element.  Yet...all over the synod...there is a departure from this core of our strategic plan, our mission.  The Living Word is no longer infused in every part of the service (in all those churches that eschew liturgy) and the Lord's Supper has become optional.  Man gets to decide if they really want God to forgive them, heal them, sustain them that week...or that month, even...or if they want to worship Him instead, highlighting their faith and commitment and adoration.

What are the reasons for this other than this particular church has always done things that way, has always had the Lord's Supper once a month?  Always, though, is a bit relative when you think that the church, to be in the LCMS, claims adherence to our Confessions that do not put man in the position of deciding when and where and how God comes to him.

Equally sad is the message pouring forth from the service presentation.  Moving away from the liturgy, really means moving away from the Living Word.  However, read through the Bible.  Too much?  Okay, how about just the Psalter.  Over and over and over again we are taught, encouraged, extolled, and admonished to have the Word in our ears, in our mouths, on our tongues, and falling from our lips.  This is because of three primary truths: a) God's Word is and can do all that He is and does, b) the Living Word never returns void, and c) it is by hearing the Word that we receive faith.

Yet we ignore those monumental, profound truths and work to make services relevant, to have bits and pieces where we can express our love and adoration and praise as if it is our faith, our works that matter, rather than the faith and work of Jesus Christ.

Too, this can be seen in the pulpit.  Pastors have lamented that they are afraid of preaching the theology of the cross because it is not welcomed by their parishioners.  The sad truth is that bucking the wants of the parishioners can lead a pastor to lose his position.  However, there is no theology of glory in all of our Confessions.  It is no mistake that the second article, the one immediately following the statement of the existence of our triune God is about Original Sin.

We are born in sin.  We live in sin.  We die in sin.  We cannot, therefore, by our own strength or reason fear and trust and love God.  It is simply, utterly impossible.  Sad, but true.  Terrifying, but true.  Devastating, but true.  So, there is no theology of glory.  There is no great work we can do.  For all she is lauded, Mother Teresa's sacrifices and labors and love and acts of mercy were filthy and gross and putrid in God's eyes.  Her work.  Her labor.  Her worship.  Worth nothing eternally for her soul.  Achieved nothing eternally for her salvation.  Count the cost of them and she still is condemned to hell.

But the Augsburg Confession, our stake ground and line in the sand, does not end at the second article.  No, it immediately takes up the heart and soul and faith and work of Jesus Christ, of our salvation and forgiveness and healing.  This work is through suffering and death.  This work is through shame and loss and betrayal.  This work is through ridicule and torture.  It is His work, His labor, His worship that matters.  The faith of Christ, not us.

So, it puzzles me that the reasons thereof for that which takes places in our churches are not really thought about, or if they are people are content with the answer being: "We have always done it this way."  Mostly, because the "always" of the Church started with Jesus...not man.  How did He get so lost...so marginalized? Thousands of years later, I spend decades in churches where little real Gospel was preached and the emphasis of my works, my faith, my worship took precedence over God coming to me, for me.  I discover the pure doctrine, finally learn what God meant for me, for His church, flee to the haven which claims to believe, teach, and confess the pure doctrine, only to discover a majority who do not read it, preach it, allow it to guide their services.

God's Word is the sanctuary above all sanctuaries. ~ BOC, LC, I, 91

Whenever God's Word is taught, preached, heard, read, or mediated upon, then the person, day, and work are sanctified.  This is not because of the outward work, but because of the Word, which makes saints of us all. ~ BOC, LC, I, 92

Therefore we constantly maintain this point:  God does not want to deal with us in any other way that through the spoken Word and through the Sacraments  Whatever is praised as from the Spirit--without the Word and Sacraments--is the devil himself.  God wanted to appear even to Moses through the bush and spoken Word. No prophet, neither Elijah nor Elisha, received the Spirit without the Ten Commandments or the spoken Word.  John the Baptist was not conceived without the word of Gabriel coming first, nor did he leap in his mother's womb without Mary's voice.  Peter says, "For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21).  Without the outward Word, however, they were not holy.  Much less would the Holy Spirit have moved them to speak when they were still unholy.  They were holy, says he, since the Holy Spirit spoke through them. ~BOC, SA, III, IX, 10-13

When we are baptized, when we eat the Lord's body, when we are absolved, our heart must be firmly assured that God truly forgives us for Christ's sake. At the same time, by the Word and by the rite, God moves hearts to believe and conceive faith, just as Paul says, "Faith comes by hearing" (Rom. 10:17). But just as the Word enters the ear in order to strike our heart, so the rite itself strikes the eye, in order to move the heart. The effect of the Word and the rite are the same. It has been well said by Agustine that a Sacrament is a visible Word, because the rite is received by the eyes and is, as it were, a picture of the Word, illustrating the same thing as the Word. The result of both is the same. ~BOC, AP, XII (VII), 4-6

Our church teaches that the Sacraments were ordained, not only to be marks of profession among men, but even more, to be signs and testimonies of God's will toward us. They were instituted to awaken and confirm faith in those who use them. Therefore, we must use the Sacraments in such a way that faith, which believes... the promises offered and set forth through the Sacraments is increased. ~BOC, AC, XIII, 1-2

‎...use of the Sacrament, about how it brings great consolation to anxious consciences, so that they, too, may learn to believe God and to expect and ask from Him all that is good...Because the Mass is for the purpose of giving the Sacrament, we have Communion every holy Day, and if anyone desires the Sacrament, we also... offer it on other days, when it is given to all who ask for it. ~BOC, AC, XXIV, 7-8, 34

Consider this true, almighty Lord, our Creator and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, after the Last Supper. He is just beginning His bitter suffering and death for our sins. In those sad last moments, with great consideration and solemnity, He institutes this most venerable Sacrament. It was to be used until the end of the world with great reverence and obedience. It was to be an abiding memorial of His bitter suffering and death and all His benefits. It was a sealing of the new Testament, a consolation of all distressed hearts, and a firm bond of unity for Christians with Christ, their Head, and with one another. In ordaining and instituting the Holy Supper, He spoke these words about the bread, which He blessed and gave: "Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you," and about the cup or wine: "This is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins." 

We, too, are simply to believe with all humility and obedience our Creator and Redeemer's plain, firm, clear, column words and command, without any doubt and dispute about how it agrees with our reason or it is possible. For these words were spoke by that Lord who is infinite Wisdom and Truth itself. He can do and accomplish everything He promises. ~BOC, FSD, VII, 44,47

For Christ Himself says, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." ...He means those who are weary and heavy-laden with their sins, with the fear of death, temptations of the flesh, and of the devil. If, therefore, you are heavy laden and feel your weakness, then go joyfully to this Sacrament [Lord's Supper] and receive refreshment, comfort, and strength. ~BOC, LC, V, 71-73

You know, a while back Concordia Publishing House had this marketing campaign of a hymnal in every home.  While I certainly think that is a good idea, it puzzles me that the campaign was not a Book of Concord in every home.

Funny that cutting an egg with a different knife would be such a surprise.  I wonder else I am missing because I do not stop to consider the reasons thereof.


Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief!