A Chocolate Biscuit is a Chocolate Biscuit...

When I was 5 years old and had been in care for nearly all my life I met my new foster parents. I was given a plate of biscuits and had to offer them to my new parents as they had a cup of tea. I carefully organised the biscuits with the chocolate ones near me and plain digestives to the front. As my Dad reached to the back of the plate I simply leaned further back as well. In front of me was my new family and a chance for a different life, but a Chocolate biscuit is a chocolate biscuit. Fortunately my new family saw this as funny rather than as a character flaw!

We may have started coming to Church because we wanted to be part of a loving community, or because we wanted to encounter God. We can end up settling for something that feels familiar and safe. The “Chocolate Biscuit” we settle for is a faith which does not challenge us or ask us to change, but becomes a set of stories we know and a way of worshiping we have grown used to. We were offered something far richer; a mysterious encounter with the living God, a new family and a place to discover our healing. We were asked to become the person God created us to be and chose something less difficult, the routine of religion.

What would happen if we refused to settle for the Chocolate Biscuit, what might God have in store for us instead? Faith could be an adventure, relationship with God could change everything we take for granted. Let’s face it Chocolate biscuits are nice, but we were created for so much more.