The Day the Salsa Died

At the risk of being overly dramatic (read "exaggeration coming for purposes of conveying my point"), my heart broke last week when the manager of the Summerville Moe's told me they would no longer be making their mango salsa. The mango salsa was AMAZING (see this post). I loved Moe's before mango salsa and I will continue to love Moe's in the post-mango era, but there will forever be a void without the mango salsa. It was new, it was different, it was the perfect combination of fruit, vegetable and cilantro goodness, but now it has been tossed aside and replaced by the roasted corn salsa (also good, but nowhere near the level of the mango).

Interestingly, when the mango salsa was introduced I used it as an opportunity to wax eloquent on the necessity of change and the importance of mixing things up. I would be a hypocrite to use its demise to lament inevitable change.

You see, we all herald change when we want things to be different, but as soon as things are to our liking, we're done changing. It's the height of hypocrisy and we all do it.

And so, it's time for a gut check (myself in the greatest need). We're rocking and rolling at Ashley Ridge - things are going great! I don't have to make anything up when people ask how the church is going. I can brag for hours about the power of the Spirit, the people, the passion, the outreach and more. But, we're only 4 months in and so far we've successfully created something we love...and now, the change process begins. I can't promise a lot of things on our journey, but I can promise that Jesus will be our constant and everything else will change throughout the course of time. It has to, it must, it's an inherent feature of living organisms - and make no mistake, the body of Christ is a living, breathing, unstoppable force.

We can't afford to get comfortable with what we like, especially if our purpose is to ignite passion for Jesus Christ. When He is the one waking us up in the morning and setting our hearts on fire we will always be changing, being made new and stretching far beyond our comfort zones.

And so, farewell sweet mango salsa, you enhanced and enriched my life. Next adventure, here I come!