“You can’t have your cake and eat it too. ”
I hateeeeee this old age adage. However, everything that touches us experientially we should use, which is why each entry will be riddled with quotes and excerpts from others. Wisdom lies in application, not the accrument of knowledge.
This super whack idiom made sense to me on a late NYC walk: if you only worship the cake’s beauty, you can’t consume it. You can’t let it inside, you can’t be jubilant about its taste, or embrace the moment. And if you decide to eat the cake, to enjoy it for its full intent and purpose because it was made for you or shared with you— then you have to release the moment once it’s gone. You can’t get it back. You can’t recreate exactly how it looked or tasted; it’s apart of you now and its gone. So let’s go back to not eating it... food rots (or gets freezer burnt), choosing to prolong your worship and not eating it— still leads to you ultimately losing it.
This is how we are about our blessings.
You lose what you prayed for the moment you forgot Whom you pray to— to get it.
How can you maintain something you idolize? If it is an idol, is it not exalted above you? Something you desire ascend into or aspire to maintain its appearance? How are you going to maintain it and sustain the you in possession of it— if you don’t believe it should be yours without worship? Are you... so far from being deserving, that you’re shocked that you are blessed in the very ways you ask? What does that say about you? Your internal lens of yourself? Is that healthy?
What does it convey that your lifestyle and mentality have not grown to accommodate the blessings you have? That you’re abusing grace? That your gratitude is superficial? How much anxiety does it cause to think any more days spent with it not together you could lose it? Could this be why we worship our blessings? Worship to supplement worthiness?
Are you internally whom you should be to externally maintain your blessings? Do you believe you deserve them? Or at least on the backend will earn their place in your life? How frequently do you forget the blessER sustaining you when you receive your blessings? Do you still have that same adulation when your new car blessing becomes the burdening car note? What about after an accident? Or how about the fervent prayers to get into a school and affording it— during finals week or a term paper? What about desperately seeking a job/career but keeping that same energy with a crappy boss and coworkers? What about when that companion/spouse disagrees with you? Doesn’t move in love towards you when they’re having a bad day?
The blessings of today become the burdens of tomorrow, because we forget that REsources are a reflection of The Source. When you’re caught up in treating all your resources like separate Sources— you’re drained to maintain them all. Ultimately, your blessings should be RE-routing you to the Source of your sustanence and their maintenance.
You have to ingest the blessings, because you know you’re the person or becoming the person who reflects having them. You can not become so tightly tethered to worshipping them simply because you know they could be gone any day that you have not stepped up. OR your faith is so little that you genuinely believe there are no more to come. Both viewpoints are problematic.
You have to “eat the cake,” because that’s the truest testament to faith and reflection of self growth. You can’t fixate on the cake’s beauty, and you have to believe... no! You have to have faith—more will come from, where that came from. You have to believe IN YOU, that YOU will beget what YOU feel YOU deserve. You will lose what you worship because you’ve already lost yourself to it. You will always win when you become the person worthy of your blessings and remain mindful of whom your Baker is.
So go ahead, EAT THE CAKE!