From Our Associate Pastor: Just a Pinch

In the past few years, I’m proud to say that I’ve become a much better cook. While I have invested in sturdier sheet pans and sharper knives, I chalk up the vast majority of my improvement to lots of small changes. I’ve learned that little things make all the difference.

One of my best teachers in my improved cooking journey has been “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking” by Persian-American chef Samin Nosrat. In the first part of the book, Nosrat exhorts the importance of salt in cooking. She recommends that home cooks taste chicken or vegetable broth before and after adding salt and notice the difference. I did this myself, and it was eye opening! A little bit of salt makes broth instantly brighter and more flavorful. There’s power in a pinch of salt.

These days, when something goes awry in my tiny galley kitchen, I pay a lot more attention to the little things. Time and time, again I’ve found that would-be disasters are often saved by just a twist of lemon, a splash of cream or a pinch of salt. There’s power in adding in a little more of a good thing.

While our culture tends to favor the big and flashy, in our own lives we know that it often takes just a little bit of something good to make things better. I know I’ve found this to be the case in my life. People have offered me little bits of grace in laundromats, hospital rooms and on every road trip I’ve ever been on. Over and over again, these small acts of kindness from strangers have made all the difference.

Furthermore, we all know the empowerment that comes from passing along these little graces to the rest of the world. And it doesn’t take much. Sometimes it’s as simple as offering to make a casserole for a new parent. Or it’s writing a letter to a legislator. Or supporting a small local business. Or calling a friend who is having a hard time. Or teaching Sunday school. Or rolling pastry dough.

A dash of salt. A pinch of kindness. That’s all God needs from us to further the Kingdom. Don’t underestimate it. I know the world’s problems often feel insurmountable and that it’s difficult to read the newspaper most days, but we cannot let ourselves become cynical or apathetic. Bishop Desmond Tutu once said that “it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”

Do not let indifference keep you from playing your part in God’s miracles. Do not let the world tell you that you have nothing to offer. Because God can always work with the little bits that we give. As we approach the Easter season, may we find it within ourselves to offer the world a little bit more good, small as it might seem. At the end of the day, God can do great things with just a pinch.

Yours in Christ,
-Rev. Haley Hansen