In my world, there’s always room for dessert, and by dessert, I mean cake. If you really want to make my day, bring me a slice of cheesecake (or two). I also speak fluent cake, and in case you didn’t know, enjoying life’s most precious moments is a direct translation. Please act accordingly!
I’m the type of girl that doesn’t need a reason to enjoy a delicious cake, but the best thing about cakes aren’t how wonderful they look or how tall they stand. If the cake isn’t as delectable as it is desirable, it’s a major fail.
The good news is cake doesn’t just appear out of thin air, and the bad news is cake doesn’t just appear out of thin air. Before a slice of cake lands on our plates, it has to be prepared, and to make it, you need the ingredients, cookware, and of course heat. What comes next is the process that brings the cake to life.
As a self-proclaimed visionary, I thrive on generating new ideas and immersing myself in the creative process. My kryptonite, however, is getting stuck on the small stuff. If I were baking, let’s just say I’d spend more time designing the cake than actually baking it. In other words, I often lose sight of the bigger picture trying to get the minor details just right…
But how many opportunities have I missed in pursuit of wanting everything just right? Some of my best results, whether a hairstyle or something more profound, came when I wasn’t trying so hard. For a moment, I wiggled free from the chains of comparison, to discover my own kind of wonderful. That is, until I find myself pursuing Mr. Just Right again.
Life is like cake, and a good cake needs a good recipe. There are different kinds of cakes that call for different ingredients, but when it comes to life, there’s only one ingredient we need.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
I’ve been getting it wrong for a long time, and maybe I’m not the only one! At first glance, it seems that the only way to break free from perfection paralysis is to sacrifice quality, but if love is the main ingredient, nothing I produce can ever be half-baked.
Getting unstuck begins with me getting back to the why. Every so often, I need to be reminded of Who I’m truly doing this for. If my efforts are driven by acquiring perishable crowns1, then their absence will push me to strive for what can never remain. However, the quality of what I create is measured by love, not likes.
Thus, if love is the measure, I am free to create work that endures, not because it is fueled by fame and fortune, but because it has been proven by fire.2
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize. Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable. - 1 Corinthians 9:24-25 BSB
If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive a reward. - 1 Corinthians 3:12-14 BSB