I had the most delicious homemade hummus the other day. It was the right texture, not too creamy, but not grainy. Garlicky and salty. I’m licking my lips just thinking about it.

I wish I could say that it was homemade by me, but it wasn’t. A half-Lebanese girl made it. The sad part is that I knew that even if I asked for the recipe and bought the same ingredients that she used, my hummus would taste nothing like hers. In cooking, there’s more than just ingredients and directions. There is technique and experience and sometimes just plain old intuition.

One year in junior high, I had a home economics assignment to pick a recipe and make it for dinner. It ended up being my favorite recipe for years. My sister and I often made it together. After a few times, we didn’t need the recipe anymore, and knew what the recipe didn’t say. Less time sauteing the chicken, add the spices now instead of then, etc.

How true that is of Christianity!

We look at long-time Christians and want to know their secret. “What is your formula to living a victorious Christian life?” we ask, hoping they’ll give us a recipe for how they’ve lived for Christ for X number of years.

“I read my bible at 6:00 am every morning,” they’ll say in either a deep and measured tone if a man, or a sweet, gentle one if a woman. “Then I won 8 souls to the Lord every day by telling them the Romans Road. After lunch, I prayed to God on my knees outside with hands raised toward heaven to show that I was holding nothing back.”

And while Christianity has it’s main tenets like read your Bible and pray, Christianity is being a Little Christ. And that doesn’t come by a formula. Oh, and we have tried cough*Pharisees*cough. We love formulas! Checklists are easier than a life time of denying self and allowing Christ to be all in all. That’s a daily thing. Experiencing God in the good times and even more importantly in the horrible times.

Personally, I would like a recipe to living a victorious Christian life. Since that’s impossible, I would take one for that hummus.