Barracuda on Your Windshield--Or Cracked Conch on Your Plate?

Coming home to the mission after getting our coolers filled with ice at the power station, we were hailed by a man who knew Sis. Marilyn. He ran into his house and came out within a fraction of a minute carrying this huge fish in his hand!

It was a barracuda.
And he tossed it right onto the windshield without further ado!

We drove slowly on home with this fish sitting there.
Marilyn told us that some islanders refuse to eat barracuda. They are afraid it will make them sick.

She said she has been told that barracuda is safe to eat if it has not been feeding on poison weed. This man who gave her the fish catches his barracudas in a bay where there is no poison weed, and she has never gotten sick on his fish. 

Nevertheless, just to be sure, she did not want to serve it to us and take the risk of someone getting sick! She whacked the tail of this frozen barracuda off with a butcher knife and a hammer and put it in the freezer for sometime later.

There are times when things land on us--unasked for--like frozen barracudas on our windshields.
Printed information stares us in the face in newspapers, letters, emails, Facebook or Twitter.
Gossip falls upon our ears.
There it sits like a fish on the windshield.
You hadn't asked for it and hadn't meant for it to be there as you drive along.

Sometimes the fish has been fed poison weed.

The media or the person writing or telling their sad story has eaten the poison weed of bitterness or rancor or outright malice.

They want us to eat their fish, swallow their story, imbibe the same bitterness and jealousy and hard feelings.

We don't have to swallow it. We don't have to eat the fish  or imbibe the bitterness.

We don't have to eat the barracuda or try out the angry red lobster tail that also sometimes makes people sick.

Marilyn is deathly allergic to shell fish. So she fixed this shell fish meal for us but couldn't eat any herself. I felt bad for her!

 But we do have to learn to make a distinction between food like poisoned barracuda or angry, complaining, growling, consistently critical red lobster tails, 

 and stories that are told you from a hurting heart that is seeking its way through hard things, like this conch meat that Marilyn thawed and prepared to serve the crew Monday night.

This meat comes from conch shells, many of which were sitting along the walk to the church.

Harvesting conch is a major island industry.

They take the meat out of the inside and then crush the shells to add to concrete.

So there are often people whose stories are similar to conch--their heart has literally been pulled out of them, their insides are achingly empty, and they have been crushed into concrete for other people to walk over. Then the heart that is left has been beaten with a conch pounder until it is shredded into cracklings, like Marilyn did Monday afternoon.

 Pound, pound, bang, bang, until the meat that was once leathery strong is shredded into tender meat.

 There it is up there in the baking tin on the left, beaten into bits that are barely hanging together.

Some people need you to listen to this kind of story because they are human and they want help.

They want to steer clear of bitterness, and if they are struggling with already feeling bitter, they need you to listen and care and help them rather than judge them, so they can be freed from any bitterness that they are struggling with.

Here Marilyn is dipping the conch in egg and then flour and deepfrying it.

 We need to provide an ear that listens and a heart that soothes the hurting places in other people's lives. We don't even need to hear all the details of their story to care, to understand, and to help.

We can encourage them that their beaten up heart can be turned into something edifying, something useful, something that God can use to feed others.

And we can also refrain from judging and writing off people who may have made mistakes and caused hurt in other people's lives. It is necessary to learn to listen, to care, and to help without assuming we know all sides to the story and judging without knowing everything. 

There are so many dynamics in many situations. 

 Saturday  night the crew guys decided they wanted to take Marilyn to eat out one time at a cafe not far away. Marilyn called ahead of time and took in our orders since we figured they might appreciate knowing ahead of time what a crew of 16 people would want.

Here are the lovely tables set up on the veranda for us.

 The waitress is taking orders for drinks. Here are the ones who wanted Coke.

 I just had to take a picture of the plate across from me, the first one to be served.

Doesn't it look delightful? (Assuming you love lobster, of course!)

 This below was my order. I ordered coleslaw, mashed potatoes, (which turned out to be instant mashed potatoes despite the hefty price--Grrr!) and grouper fillet.

I really liked my grouper filet and the coleslaw, but not the instant potatoes.

Grouper fish is delicious. 

And sometimes it takes a group to get through hard things.

It takes community. 

You have to work and play and suffer and pray and endure together. You have to forgive one another and find solutions to problems. 

Below Marilyn is frying plantain, a type of cooking banana.

 She also made this delicious meal on our last night on the island. Baked chicken and rice.

There was rice almost every  meal, but no one complained. It was a simple, delicious food.

It did not contain poison weed or other bacteria or allergen that makes people sick.

 The food we prepare for others to eat is important.

But our choice of table conversation is even more important.

Do we poison other's minds with complaints, criticisms, gossip, fears, and other negative talk around our tables? Or are our words consistently healthy and helpful?

 Have we eaten poisoned barracuda or are we inflamed with anger and bitterness and malice?

Are we more interested in running down other people to make ourselves look better, or do we care about other people?

Do we love those we are eating with and talk about edifying, positive, cheerful things, or do we prefer to dredge up problems, lawsuits, and other negative things?

 Something Jonathan and I have been working on is keeping table conversation positive and uplifting.

Problems can wait for another time or be turned into problem solving or positive teaching opportunities to our children. 

Table time is time for news, for teaching opportunities, for sharing, for laughing, and for loving.

Lord, cleanse our food, our appetites, our table conversation of anything that does not glorify You!

Bless our kitchens and tables with Your presence and joy!