Hold the onions

I was eating at a restaurant yesterday and happened upon a conversation that occurred between a mother and her young child. It seems the child was complaining about how she ordered his burger. The mother responded to his complaints by explaining how the burger was going to arrive and that he was to enjoy it when it arrived. Now before you reach deep for your expert parenting advice, consider this event with a larger perspective. Yesterday I posed a comparison between the childlike follower of Jesus and the childish. It seems to me that the little boy's behavior provides a good illustration of how we distort our journey with Jesus. When we decide to follow Jesus sometimes we expect to treat it like an old Burger King commercial: I'll have it "my way" or I will complain. Everyday with Jesus provides us with challenges. The virtues of a childlike faith allow us to cherish the fact that we walk through those challenges with a God who holds our hand. While God is big enough to receive all our complaints (read the Psalms), we live in a day when we often expect life to be made to order.