Fortune Cookies

Back the first of March Kristina went to a theater workshop here in Birmingham called SETC. She had a grand time and enjoyed attending workshops and theater productions and hanging out with her friends. It was a long 3 or 4 days and by the weekend she was spent. She came home every day telling me stories of what she had learned or what play she had watched or something funny she and her friends had done during down time.

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On one day in particular everyone decided to walk "79 blocks" (according to Kristina) to a Chinese restaurant in downtown Birmingham. She sent me several text messages upon arrival trying to decide what to order. She finally settled on a shrimp and lobster meal and I never heard from her again.

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When I picked her up that night I asked her how she liked her lunch and my question sparked a funny memory of her day. She began to laugh so hard she could barely breathe. She was wheezing and shaking and holding her finger up in the air as if she was saying "just a minute." At the sight of her laughing I couldn't help but laugh. Here we were driving through the streets of Birmingham laughing hysterically and I didn't even know what we were laughing about.

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Finally, she sucked in a deep breath and said. "Momma, you know how I just love fortune cookies, right?" I shook my head agreeing as she continued. "Today, at the restaurant, we get our fortune cookies and everybody opens theirs and reads their fortune to themselves when all of a sudden Kelly jumped up which throws his chair back into the next table and screams 'I got jipped! My fortune says...'" And the laughter begins again. She can't even finish her sentence and here I am hanging on her every word. I begin to wonder what in the world his fortune had said and I start poking at Kristina while she is bent over nearly in the floorboard. "Tell me! What did it say?" She finally composed herself enough to finish. "Mom, seriously, no kidding, his fortune said I eat meat!"

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At this we both began to laugh so hard I could barely keep the truck on the road. We wheezed and snorted and shook our heads and I'm sure had the police pulled me over he would have given us a ticket for disorderly conduct because I would not have been able to keep myself composed. The more I laughed the more Kristina laughed and naturally the more she laughed the more I laughed. The next day my ribs were sore from laughing so hard.

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Have you ever gotten a funny fortune cookie like that? Or, what about advice that at the time seemed so stupid and unrealistic? I love the book of Proverbs. That book of "fortunes cookies" was written just for me I think. I flip through it time and time again and read and re-read the verses over and over. I like riddles and things that just stick in my mind. As I've said before...I learn things the hard way so if you give me something in riddle then it sticks with me forever because it's not simple or easy.

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So, today, I have cracked open a "fortune cookie" with hopes that it sticks with you and makes you think! It is entitled "Warning Against Rejecting Wisdom." There are days when advice may seem futile or ridiculous at the time, but the day will come when that advice will make perfect sense and we will hold it dear to our hearts because that advice will determine the choices that we make! "Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord, since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm." Proverbs 1:29-33.