29th Sunday of the Year: What will we make with the gift of our lives?

Imagine, if you will, that you signed up with me for a 12-week cooking course.

One of those great, big, beautiful industrial kitchens.

We all have our little counters and our workspaces.

And for 12 weeks, we get fantastic teaching by a master chef.

And I mean, we learn it all.

You want to learn how to fricassee or fry.

You want to saute.

You want to be able to steam.

You want to roast or bake.

You want to take any number of seasonings and figure out how to put them together.

You want to do it with meats.

You want to do it with vegetables.

You want to do some incredible things with some breads and even a little, a little, uh, 12 weeks, kind of the gamut of all sorts of general cooking principles and designs.

And now it's time for the final exam.

And so we all show up into our workspaces.

We all got our little tables and preps.

And in front of us is a bag.

And the chef comes out and says, okay, you've been with me for 12 weeks.

I've showed you all this stuff.

I've showed you all the seasonings.

Here's your final exam.

I'm going to give you four hours.

You must use everything that's in that bag.

Whatever ingredients are in there, you've got to use it.

Now, you have the whole kitchen, so all the seasonings and all the spices, all the oils and the butter, all that we have in the kitchen, you can use anything here.