TCMMY Inspiration Station: Cheese and Cracker Lifestyle

This episode explores the valuable lesson of recognizing the abundance available to us, often hidden behind self-imposed limitations. Both the story of a European family's journey and a personal cruise narrative illustrate how many settle for less than they deserve, emphasizing the importance of embracing one's identity and worth. 
• The European family’s journey symbolizes hope for a better life 
• Life aboard the ship was marked by limited food choices 
• A discovering banquet highlights the theme of missed opportunities 
• Personal cruise experience parallels the story with humor and nostalgia 
• Mindset and identity play a key role in limiting perceptions 
• Call to embrace the abundance and opportunities available

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Thank you very much. Welcome back to the All Purpose Pod. We are in the house again. Thank you again for listening Wherever you are and how you are listening to our show. Thank you again for making us a part of your week. Well, we're in the holiday, or we're in the throes of a holiday. I guess you could say it's almost over for many. Heading into a new year, a lot to talk about, a lot to deal with. I know the idea of a new year means new benefits, new opportunities, new challenges as well. I want to just share something with you that's just on my heart today. I'm trying to keep it brief, but again, first, thank you for listening to the Inspiration Station. Thank you for supporting our show on all of the networks and platforms that were on and all the ways that you listen to us. Thank you so much again for doing that. Thank you again for making us a part of your week.

Speaker 1: 1:30

There's a story about a european family. I love the story. Uh, they were claiming to get to the united states to enjoy peace, freedom from oppression, a better life for their family, all the things that we would want for ourselves had we not been so blessed to be born and raised in america, a lot of people, historically, that have come here. You're looking to your history books. You heard the stories in school when you were growing up. Families wanted to get you to the united states because in that location was peace, freedom, liberty and opportunity to have a better life. So this European family came up with a plan. They saved enough money to get on the ship traveling across the Atlantic Ocean to the States. They had enough saved to eat cheese and crackers in their cabin until they arrived in America on the ship they were on. They were on the ship for approximately three weeks, three weeks to be exact, I believe. Every day and night they would hear the footsteps of the people in and out of the banquet hall. You'd hear the laughter and the merriment as they went back and forth, eating and getting to know each other and just enjoying their time on the ship, almost like a cruise. I guess Don't know what they were thinking, but I'm sure that this family longed to join others on the ship. They were relegated to the confines of their cabin because of what they perceived their value was. They thought they had enough food just to make it Live off of cheese and crackers until they get to America and then they can really start to begin to craft that life they've been hoping for for so many years.

Speaker 1: 3:04

One day, after about three weeks or so of traveling, the father Upton decided to celebrate with the family, almost as a reward for their sacrifices during the ship's journey. So they ventured out to see if they can have one meal with the rest of the ship in the banquet hall. The father approached the captain about how much a meal of that sort would cost. With great surprise, the captain said you mean, you haven't been eating here the whole time. All those meals in the banquet hall were included in the price of the fare, and maybe you can imagine what the father and his family were thinking at that moment. They were on this ship for weeks, living off cheese and crackers, but a few feet away from where they were, only steps away, was a banquet that they had access to that was already paid for. Excuse me, I know the exact feeling of that. Maybe you can relate to that. I hope you can put yourself in their shoes just for a minute. I want you to understand that feeling. They must have had to sacrifice and realize that what they were sacrificing for they didn't even have to. It was already taken care of, it was already covered. I know that exact same feeling.

Speaker 1: 4:18

My wife and I always tell this story Every time we bring up our first cruise. It's actually our only cruise that we've done. We did that probably about in 2016, I think it was, and we were on our cruise from Charleston to the Bahamas. It was our very first cruise. It was a big deal for us. We were nervous and excited the whole nine yards. We had everything arranged. We paid into the little plan that we had. We had an awesome travel agent who does fantastic work even to this day. We rely on him greatly for our travel uh plans. But we had it all arranged to have uh meals at the best restaurant on the cruise. We had all that stuff planned out. But there was some stuff in the fine print that I was not either. I was aware of it initially, but I forgot about it in the midst of going through this travel plans and being on the cruise and enjoying the scenery and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: 5:16

But the bottom line was that we were eating all of the common food, and I mean that. I want to make a point about this whole thing about eating common food. We ate everything from burgers and pizza and sushi and all that kind of stuff, all the things that everybody can get to stuff on the buffet line. You know how buffet lines are. Imagine that. That's kind of what it was like even on the cruise All the things that everybody else was eating. That's what we ate because we thought that's what we were supposed to eat. We didn't realize that we had a banquet set aside for us. It's already inside the paperwork, it was already part of the plan. It was a restaurant, the fanciest restaurant, and I mean the fans, I'm talking about five star. I would give it six stars if I could add the entertainment aspect. They had entertainment aspect. They had entertainment. They had a table that was reserved for us only for the entire cruise, and we didn't know about it until the very last day. This story of this European family was just like our story on this cruise, because we're on the cruise for about four or five days. We were there doing everything that everybody was doing, commonly speaking, eating what they ate, hanging out where they hung out the whole nine yards, and we didn't realize until the very last day.

Speaker 1: 6:29

I wanted to make my wife special for something different. I wanted to give her an opportunity, her and I, to have something, you know, kind of fancy. You know, we didn't even get dressed up, but just go to a fancy restaurant and we found the fanciest one there when we walked in the door, this was just a treat for us. We were eating all kinds of burgers and pizza. We just got tired of the buffet. We just got tired of it. We had some Italian food. We wanted to try something different. So we went here to the was a fancy restaurant on the ship, without question. You could see why. When you walk in there, when we walk in, the guy one of the guys he wasn't a maitre d, but he was like one of the attendants he said marshals. I look like, hey, that's our last thing. Is he calling us? We've been waiting for you. Where have you been? I said what we've been expected for three or four days, didn't know that we had our table reserved for us. I'm talking about five star dining. I'm talking about fine dining, three courses, all that was waiting for us every single day. We didn't know it was there.

Speaker 1: 7:38

What's my point in all of this stuff? You may view the father's original plan as being humble and wise. Some may view it as prideful. Attempts to be humble can also be filled with pride, because it's an attempt to protect ourselves a lot of the time. But in doing so, in trying to be self-protective, we dislodge ourselves from our identity. That European father and his family saw their value a certain way, but their value was seen differently. Outside of that view, I thought that we had to be in the common areas and that's all we were supposed to have. We actually paid for something more than that. We put money into something that was going to be much more beneficial. We didn't realize that we had access to it In the Garden of Eden. Enni's plan in the wilderness was on top of the mountain with the Savior and tempting him and just lodging from his identity. That's all he'd ever try to do with us. Get us used to staying in our own stuff and not seeking out who we really are and what we really can have and walk in our authority.

Speaker 1: 8:39

Christians worldwide are eating cheese and crackers, just like that European family that's eating cheese and crackers and thinking it's the most they can have, it's the best they're ever going to do in life. The Lord's giving them access to a full banquet, fully paid for and specifically set up for us. Am I saying cheese and crackers is bad? If you're living on that or thinking with a cheese and cracker mindset or living a cheese and cracker lifestyle, understand it's a full banquet, fully paid for you, reserved because God loves you. That makes sense. You can laugh at our story. It was funny to us. We're still laughing about it now, but the European family learned a great lesson. I know my wife and I did. Hope you did too. Hope you enjoyed the episode today. Have a great day and thanks again for supporting Inspiration Station and the Call Me, mr U the podcast. Have a wonderful day, thank you.