I suppose I can do this.
My thoughts exactly when I first tried to make mayonnaise. I know there are those who can expertly make mayonnaise without stressing but that’s not my makeup.
The recipe I had didn’t call for many ingredients: oil, egg, salt, a dash of mustard, and vinegar. What I wasn’t told about mayonnaise is that the oil must be added slowly as it’s being blended and also it has to be very clear to get the best result and where I lived at the time (1987 Kalemie, Zaire) clear oil was scarce. It could be found but it took some searching. The most common oil was a brand, “Oki” that was a bit cloudy, making one wonder of its makeup – but I tried not to wonder too much.
Time and again I followed the directions given to me and time and again I failed having an oily mess in the kitchen. By my umpteenth attempt, I dissolved in tears and resigned myself to a mayonnaise-less existence until Shirley, our senior missionary, came and talked me through the process. I was making two errors: the oil was cloudy and I wasn’t adding the oil properly. She brought a clear bottle of oil to my kitchen and demonstrated the process. **Remember this was years before the advent of YouTube and internet where I could’ve gotten a video tutorial!**
- Add all ingredients to the blender, except some ¾ of the oil.
- Blend.
- Trickle clear oil into the blender as it’s running and slowly the mayonnaise will emulsify.
That night we had sandwiches with mayonnaise on the bread I had just baked. Yes, I could make mayonnaise, but supposing I could do it without knowing the process was messy and expensive as oil wasn’t cheap and I wasted a lot in the process of learning.
It’s not an uncommon problem we have, supposing we, and others, understand. Life is full of supposing moments but when we suppose, or assume, something we are reaching into an unknown realm. When we suppose or assume something, we take that assumption on as truth rather than possibility.
I’ve written about this before but it bears repeating to make mention of Moses and his experience with supposing in Acts 7:23-25 NASB “…it entered his mind to visit his brethren…and he supposed his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand.”
Moses apparently knew he was a Hebrew since “it entered his mind to visit his brethren.” At the same time he was a member of Pharaoh’s household and apparently walked in some level of authority. He supposed, assumed, that the people would understand that with his status he was the deliverer. He knew he was chosen but he didn’t know the One Who chose him – he assumed he would do the job himself in a way that he understood.
He supposed wrong.
As the account goes, Moses ended up escaping to Midian after he killed an Egyptian. There he stayed for 40 years, married, had children, was a shepherd, and the dream of deliverance was long-forgotten. Until one day when God appeared to him and Moses knew Him Who would deliver the people.
Acts 7:35 NASB “This Moses whom they disowned, saying ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush.”
Once Moses knew Who God was, he was sent to be the deliverer of the Hebrews. The difference was when Moses went back to Egypt, he knew he wasn’t doing the work in himself, God was working through him.
In addition to supposing I could make mayonnaise, I’ve been guilty of supposing about other weightier things: supposing people understand us, who we are, why we do what we do, why we church plant, why we willingly separate ourselves from our families, and this has cost me, and those lessons have been expensive.
When we suppose or assume that others know how God will work or what He has called us to do, we are guilty of placing unfair expectations on them. Even in supposing we know how to do something ourselves before bathing it in prayer, puts us under an unreasonable amount of pressure to get it right.
God wants to work through us but before we can see the miraculous, we have to know Him of the burning bush – the One Who delivers – because there’s no way we can work for Him without having Him work in us first. Otherwise, our lives become like cloudy mayonnaise where the power of God hasn’t emulsified and become united with us to the point where we can’t tell where we end and God begins. This blending comes with a great expense: misunderstanding and rejection by those around us (sometimes by the ones we love) because our lives make absolutely no sense.
No, it doesn’t make sense to others but it makes perfect sense to me.
Like a perfect batch of mayonnaise.
