“To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22).

Right now I am in Costa Rica, living in the Morales-Taylor home for the next month. Every morning, mama Flor fixes breakfast. Today we had one of my favorites: fried egg mixed with thinly sliced mushrooms. For lunch and dinner, and sometimes for breakfast in the form of gallo pinto, we always have rice with our meal.

I don’t remember when I first had mushrooms. They were not part of the food culture that I grew up in. In fact, I was 15 before I had rice! (Yep, you guessed it; I was not raised in the south!)

My first experience with mushrooms was probably at a salad bar. Big grayish-white lumps with black gills, and pretty tasteless. That was not a good introduction. Not until I had them sauteed in butter did I realize how wonderful they could be.

Rice, however, was an instant love at first bite. I was so unfamiliar with rice that I had to ask someone what it was. Fluffy grains covered with meaty gravy. Amazing!

Now, I would feel pretty deprived if I didn’t have mushrooms occasionally. And how can a person live without rice!

The church can be like mushrooms and rice. Sometimes people get a bad first impression. They hear or see something that gives them the wrong idea about the church, and it may take years before they decide to try it in its purity.

Sometimes, though, the church is like rice. That first introduction simply blows them away and they embrace the church with open arms.

Our responsibility is to make sure that we are sauteed in butter and covered in meaty gravy.

–B. A. Oliver