Used Coffee Grounds or Pizza Supreme

I met with Pastor Steve this week. Actually we meet together most every week. We laugh, talk about what God is up to at El Puente, and share our joys and frustrations. This week he told me this story. “A king wanted to be more closely associated with his subjects, so he set a weekly time when they could make their requests. During one of those times, a long line of people came. Person after person approached the king asking for one small favor after another. Each one was refused.

“Finally an old farmer came, ‘Your sovereign,’ he said. ‘I am a farmer. I have been a farmer all of my life. I have a small parcel of land on which I have planted and harvested just enough to make ends meet. This is my life; it will always be my life, and I am satisfied with it. But I also have a son, and my request is not for myself but for him. My son has the soul of a farmer. He loves the land and has a special way with it. He has a far greater capacity than to just eek out a living. My request is that you give him land in keeping with his giftedness.’

“‘Done,’ replied the king. ‘It is yours.’ The king’s advisors were amazed, and when the old farmer left they approached king and asked, ‘Why did you turn all these other people away but gave this man what he asked?’ ‘Because,’ replied the king, ‘he was the only one who made a request fit for a king.’”

It makes me wonder if I’ve settled into asking for piddly things unfit for the King of the universe. Maybe instead of used coffee grounds, I should be requesting pizza supreme. If I have the confidence to ask, that is.