I Like Leftovers...

I like leftovers.

It hasn’t always been that way.

Mom always had a meal schedule. I don’t remember exactly how it went, but it was something like, Sunday is turkey legs, Monday is chicken, Tuesday is pork, Wednesday is ground beef, and so on. And periodically there would be a surprise “clean out the refrigerator of leftovers.” I did not care for those days (Mom taught me not to say “hate,” but my disdain for leftovers was pretty high).

Then I moved out and survived on my own cooking, which began with ramman noodles (10 for a dollar!) and five for a dollar frozen burritos (I usually remembered to thaw before eating). All of a sudden Mom’s leftovers looked really good. And now having eaten a fairly high number of sandwiches in my life, I much prefer taking leftovers when I take my lunch to the office. Just because I didn’t finish a piece of steak or a bowl of soup the night before doesn’t mean that it suddenly became tasteless after a night in the refrigerator. In fact, some things taste better the second time around as the flavors have time to meld together.

That is true spiritually as well. Even though we may eat a delightful spiritual meal on a particular passage, there may still be more food to feed our faith and stimulate our godly desires in that same passage the next day. In fact, it is often only as we ruminate (see Ps. 1:2) on a passage over an extended period of time that its deeper meanings are comprehended and applied.

This is one of the reasons that Scripture often says to remember the things that have already been spoken. Discipleship is often not the impartation of new truth, but a reminder of the things that are already known and believed (2 Pt. 3:1-2). An effective means of stimulating one another to love and good deeds is simply to remind each other of the truths we believe and exhort each other to hold on and keep on (1 Thess. 4:1). This is what a parent does, and this is what a parent in the faith does (1 Thess. 2:11).

And this is also what a pastor endeavors to do (in part) every Sunday morning. Yet some things (believe it or not) get left on the “editing room floor.” Perhaps there are tangents suggested by the passage that get left out as the message is written on Friday morning, simply because they would be too distracting to the overall flow of the message. Or perhaps they are left out as the message is preached because of time considerations or because of the dynamic of communicating the passage unfolds while preaching. Regardless, the pastor regularly leaves the pulpit having provided a sufficient meal, with leftovers in hand.

What is done with those leftovers? If there are enough, they become a sermon the next week or on another occasion. But usually they just end up tucked away in the recesses of his own mind for his own meditation, or buried in a file folder in a cabinet.

Or they end up on a website blog the next morning. Often after fielding questions following the worship service or after my own further reflection, I realize that a point was inadequately explained or that something may have been edited that needed amplification, or there was another quote that would have provided further insight. What to do with those things?

Just a few years ago, there was nothing to do with those thoughts. But now with the Internet there is. So as a means of redeeming technology and as stimulant to my own soul to remember the truth just preached and as a foundation for a “spiritual midnight snack,” you will regularly find posted on my blog “Sunday Leftovers” — short thoughts, quotes, applications and expansions of the message from that morning. Use them to deepen your understanding of the grace of Christ and as a stimulant to a greater delight in Christ.