Toast something

„You want your bread toasted?“ „I’d love to, it is already great as it is, but even better toasted."

This is my wonderful husband speaking, even in regard to the fabulous fresh honey bread which we brought home from Rügen island just the other day. I agree: When bread is toasted, it is better. It is warm and delicious - and a little crunchy. It is also a one- on-one thing - one slice treated individually in a special way.

In a recent blog Seth Godin muses about toast and summarizes: 

Something toasted is custom made (just for you), made with care (attention, it shouldn’t burn), ephemeral (cold toast is, well, not delicious). I would add: Something toasted is „right now“, it adds „the present“ to something already there.

When Paul advises his teampartners in Colossians 4 to "make the most of every opportunity“(in the New International Version), I think of toast now. And I wonder:

What can you toast today? Are there any tasks, any ideas, any appointments coming up - are there relationships in the family, in the community, which could be treated better? Deserve an upgrade? What would it mean to toast an idea you already have?

I think it could mean this: Rethinking your approach, from routine to custom made, from „mass production“ to individuality. To take up an idea and treat it with care. To warm up our words by adding a little more time (in the toaster) and a little more warmth. And a little more care. And an honest smile.

When you wonder about the triumphal procession of coffee shops and icecream places on the globe, you might see, how much people enjoy something made fresh, made just for them. Something on the spot, something treated with care, custom made. „Thought must be made better, and human life more fruitful, for the divine energy to move it onward and upward,“ writes Mary Baker Eddy. Here you have it. So lets bring out the toasters, bring on the warmth, feel „the divine energy“.