A new commandment–illustrated by pancakes!

But Jesus adds the essential ingredient

1 John 2:7-8 Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one–to love one another. Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment.

John 15:9, 12, 26 [Jesus said] I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. … This is my commandment: Love each other just as I have loved you. … I will send you the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me.

And they’re off on the thousand-mile drive to Oklahoma: Linda, my brother Dan, his wife Diane, and friend John, sharing the driving of the moving van and Linda’s car. The end of a chapter in Linda’s life, and the beginning of a whole new adventure.

Saturday I made pancakes for the crew. I doled out the first six pancakes on the griddle and placed toppings on the table while the pancakes cooked. They looked weird, though, flat and rubbery. I stared at them, puzzled, and suddenly realized I hadn’t put baking powder or soda in the batter.

Everything there except one essential ingredient.

The difference between the first batch and the second was notable enough to take a photo.

It occurred to me that my pancakes could be an analogy of trying to love in our own power vs. including the Holy Spirit to help us love like Jesus did. On my own, my love for others can be flat and flabby. When the Holy Spirit is in charge, though, everything changes: gentleness, beauty, and good humor take the place of tension, stress, and conflict. Have you noticed that?

So now I have another image to remind me of the Holy Spirit “essential ingredient”: pancakes WITH leavening. “Don’t try harder,” they remind me. “Try smarter. Invite the Spirit to work his magic. Then relax into Jesus’s gracious love; his understanding of what each of us needs.”