Oddly Perfect Pot Luck

**Special thanks to Victoria for taking charge in the kitchen. Also thank you to all the wonderful people who setup, cooked, cleaned and packed up! The lunch went so well, there were so many complements for the event organization, the food and in particular, the gravy! **

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The contents of a pot luck lunch, made up of seemingly pure random dishes, can be quite amusing and interesting. The resulting mish mesh dinner table is a reflection of the people attending. Is there too much food or too little? More drinks or more food? All savory or all sweet?

When I was asked to help organize a Thanks giving pot luck dinner, I thought it best to fix the odds with a survey. The survey description indicated the rough proportion of greens, potatoes and desserts we’d need. This survey would allow people to indicate the kind of dish they’d bring. In theory, people would check the results and choose whatever option was lacking. Instead of a dinner table reflective of our idiosyncrasies, we’d have the right proportion of dishes.

That theory didn’t work out. People couldn’t see the results because of a technical oversight on my part. People just chose whatever felt right to them. To me, this looked like a problem. The majority of people who used the form, wanted to bring dessert. A seasoned Christian knows they should trust God in these social events. A seasoned Christian believes everything will turn out alright in the end, just trust God. I’m not a seasoned Christian, so I decided to call around at the last minute and ask a few people to switch to the other options.

Ironically, had I left things exactly as they were, with everyone bringing what they felt like they should bring, the lunch would probably have been perfect. Just enough savory and just enough sweet. Even with a dessert or two less, the luncheon went really, really well, thanks to all the lovely cooks! However when I dawdled up to the dessert table and found it empty, I did feel God was reminding me to be a little less statistical and a little more trusting. As long as we approach life with the right spirit, it all works out in the end.