Never say never

”I’m NEVER going to eat that Mom!”

When I was a kid I hated zucchini. My mom had a wonderful garden and she would grow monster zucchinis every summer. We are talking the size of two footballs laid end to end. She would fry them with a little bit of butter and some spices and every time she served them I would cry and sit at the table for hours refusing to finish my dinner. It felt like she made zucchini every single night, all summer. It was probably more like once a week. My childish heart that thought she grew them on purpose just to punish me.

And then somewhere along the way, I grew up. I started to like zucchini. I think the first time I noticed that I didn’t mind it so much was in soup. And then zucchini bread. And then stir fry. And then raw dipped in ranch dressing. And now it’s one of my most favorite vegetables, next to broccoli. I realized that my Mom probably had my best nutritional interests at heart, and growing zucchinis in her garden brought her a lot of joy. She wasn’t out to get me.

I’ve always been stubborn, and very sure of the things I love and do not love. I get bugged about it a lot, especially because some of the things I think are the absolute worst are things that lots of other people love (see: sushi, green peppers, hiking). But as I get older, I find that some of my likes and dislikes have changed. Some, not all—green peppers are still the grossest thing in the known universe. My dreams and expectations for my life have changed too. They’ve become more fluid, adjusting to times and seasons and the work of God in my life and in my heart.

A few weeks ago I was talking with a friend about being a city girl to the core and how moving to a beautiful cabin in the middle of the woods is not exactly the stuff of my daydreams.

“But it would be so beautiful! And quiet. The country is just more peaceful and slow than the city. You would never even consider it?”

“Well, I don’t know… there are a lot of things about my life that I could never have pictured. I thought I would move back to Edmonton as soon as I was done school. I thought I would have an incredible career and family already. I thought I would have traveled the world by now. You just never know what God has planned for you and where that can be different from what you’ve imagined-better than what you imagined. So I guess I’m learning to never say never to Him.”

I was being totally serious but he laughed at me, “So you’re taking life advice from Justin Bieber, then?”

There have been so many times in my life when God has changed my heart on something or slowly turned me in a different direction. So many times he has had something different and much, much better in mind. And he made me, so He knows me. Right down to my flat feet that hate climbing mountains and taste buds that retreat in fear of sashimi (literally it’s like eating stinky slime, I don’t get you guys). And he loves me. I bet if I said a lot less “I’ll never do that!” and more, “I trust you God, you are my delight, establish my steps”, I would feel a lot more peace and joy.

You guys, I think the Biebs has much wisdom!