Chilli in Candles

This week I was making candles to raise money for our teachers. I had a mold for the candle, but I needed something to prop up the mold while the wax hardened. Ask my housemates what my 'life motto' is and they will say, "Everything is useful." (Check out some of my projects using 'rubbish'.)

I rummaged around the pantry and came out with an old butter container. Actually, read Blue Band style fat spread...butter is a little harder to come by. I put the mold inside, but there was still a little bit too much space and the candle tipped a bit. I held the candle, full of hot wax, with one hand and reached again into the pantry. My eye spied a chilli jar (Oh, I am so grateful for parcels from home.) I grabbed the jar and it filled the gap nicely.

I was packing up from the candle making a few hours later and my housemate walked past. She saw the chilli jar in my hand and gave me a look of, "Spice...and candles...what?"

Jokingly I said to her, "I added some chilli to the candle so that when it burns you can smell chilli..."

My housemate looked at the candle and notices some red flecks up the top. "Oh", she said, "I can see the flakes."

I laughed and explained that I had only used the chilli for propping up the candle and that the red flecks were wax from the previous candle. We both laughed as we thought about the weirdness of a chilli candle, but as I was laughing, I thought about what had happened.

There had been no chilli in the candle, but my housemate fully believed it, and the evidence she saw confirmed it. If she had known and believed that I had made a red candle in the mold before this one, then the red flecks would have been evidence to that truth.

When we believe something to be true, we find evidence to support that belief.

This was such a clear example of this truth!

We've had some challenges recently with some of our teachers misunderstanding what had been said. Things were eventually cleared up as we realised what was heard and we were able to clarify, but it left us wondering, "How did they hear that?! That is so opposite what was said!" We blamed it on culture and language. English is not their first language, and even their English is different to the English we speak.

But sometimes I think I get so hung up on culture that I forget the simple fact that we are all humans. Yes, culture and language makes it easier to miscommunicate and the wrong message to be received, but I think I can be too quick to blame culture or language when that is not the real issue. Yes, language makes it harder to understand sometimes, but at the core of us all is a heart that either believes truths or lies. And we live our lives according to those truths or lies. If I believe that no-one likes me, then I will interpret events by that lens and I will find things to support that lie. If I believe that I am unloved or rejected by colleagues, then a natural lull in a conversation when I arrive could be interpreted as everyone stopping speaking because I came.

I'm guilty of thinking that we are all superhuman at times. That the fact we are all giving up our time, money, careers, family etc to serve God means we are above the trappings of other humans. Pride, fear, lies. But it's not true. We have short comings, and if anything, they can feel heightened by the very lifestyle we live.

Life is messy. We all bring issues to the table that affect how we do things, see things, experience things. I'm challenged to look at myself and ask, "What lies do I believe that change my perspective of things?" I know I'm not perfect, but by God's grace I learn and grow and become more like Jesus. I pray for the ability to view situations from God's perspective, fully based on the truths of Him.