Go Bake Some Cookies

Jan and I made some vegan chocolate chip cookies last night. Despite the fact that the dough was a bit crumbly, they turned out great! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I read about this lady who was feeling very sorry for herself. Everything seemed to be going wrong in her life - physically, emotionally and spiritually. So this good lady went to a wise woman in her neighborhood to pour out her sorrows. The wise woman listened to her for a while, then interrupted her with, "Go bake some cookies."

Our friend was like, "Huh?"

The woman repeated what she'd said. So our friend went home and baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Her task completed, she looked at the sweets.

"Now, what am I going to do with all these cookies? I can't eat all this."

She packed the cookies in a box and went and distributed them throughout the neighborhood. One woman bit into it. "Hmm, this is delicious. Thank you so much!" Others had similar comments. When our friend saw the happy expressions on everyone's faces, she also felt happy. She returned to the wise woman and told her, "You know, I couldn't understand why you told me to go and bake cookies. But after I saw how happy my cookies made those people, I no longer feel sorry for myself. I realize that when I do something for others I'm helping myself also. What goes around comes around."

Elijah said pretty much the same thing as the wise woman to the widow woman of  Zarephath. When Elijah asked her to bake him a cake she replied, "As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die " (1 Kings 17: 12). 
Do you see self-pity in those words?

But Elijah persuaded her to do as he asked, and the Bible says, "...and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days. 16 And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah" (v 15-16).

So, are you feeling sorry for yourself? Go, bake some cookies!