Ministers and Mashed Potatoes

A few days ago I was in a dining room of a nursing home having lunch with two gentlemen who had previously served as ministers. My job as a speech language pathologist was to be there with them, and observe the safety of their swallow function. One man, because of an acquired difficulty in chewing, was on a softened diet. The other, because of a previous stroke, was on a pureed diet.

As we were looking at what was served to them for lunch that day we began talking about the food on their plates. There was a helping of some brown, stringy looking stuff that we assumed was the meat. There was another dish that contained a steamy green ladle full of what we believed to be spinach. On the other side of the plate there was large portion of the only thing that we could be certain what it was because of its white, creamy appearance. This was the side of mashed potatoes.

This look at modified diets and swallow safety got the three of us talking. The one man asked why his potatoes were more whole and semi-chopped while the other man had completely mashed, and perfectly whipped potatoes. The other man, who had the perfectly whipped and not semi-chopped potatoes, wondered why he couldn’t have more whole potatoes because that is what he preferred. I proceeded to tell them that because of their life circumstances and individual differences that they were receiving the most appropriate and safest potatoes that they could have.

Talking potatoes then got the three of us talking about faith. We discussed how God sometimes gives us baked potatoes, scalloped potatoes, French fried potatoes, new potatoes, sweet potatoes, diced potatoes, hash browns and sometimes just plain old mashed potatoes. We agreed that potatoes just like life moments can come in different colors, shapes, sizes, and consistencies, but that they were all good and that “eating” them is good for us.

In perfect God timing when one of the gentlemen wasn’t certain he would be interested in eating his potatoes one of the nurse assistants came to the table and announced that she has “forgot to bring the gravy to pour on top of his potatoes.”

Because we were now tuned into faith we knew that gravy is the same as Grace and that God’s Grace can always be poured on the top of any “potato” and that this always makes the meal much more palatable.

Lesson learned: Don’t forget you can always ask for extra “gravy”!

“But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.” – Ephesians 4:7