It’s sausage ball season!
I know that, technically, sausage balls aren’t limited to fall or holidays. But somehow in my family’s mind, they just fit in this time of year. We rarely, if ever, make sausage balls in the summer, and we know autumn is officially here when we’ve made our first batch sometime in September or October!
I’ve enjoyed sausage balls all my life, but I didn’t make my first batch until after I got married. My mother-in-law always made some for my husband to collect when he visited home, but since we lived about eight hours away, those visits could be rare.
Sausage balls aren’t hard to make at all. They are just three ingredients — Bisquick, ground sausage, and shredded cheese (although we’ve learned that adding in some blackened seasoning makes them even yummier!) — all dumped into a bowl and mixed. The kicker is that it takes a bit to get the ingredients all mixed together because there’s no moisture added other than the moisture in the ground sausage.
When I first started making sausage balls over two decades ago, I didn’t think it was possible to get all of the cheese and Bisquick mixed in. There was just no way to make it happen. The sausage just didn’t hold enough moisture, no matter how much I worked the dough.
But then I got a stand mixer, and all of my baking endeavors were revolutionized. I quickly became addicted to the thing, wondering how in the world I’d ever mixed doughs without it.
The first time I used the stand mixer to mix up sausage ball dough, I was amazed at how easily the ingredients melded together. Even so, it still took a couple more years before I realized that I really could get it all mixed, leaving no remnants of cheese or Bisquick.
I know better now. I know to keep mixing. Let it go just a little longer. Watch for all of the powder and cheese to be absorbed into the ball of dough. I know it will happen if I just wait long enough.
Every time I mix up a batch, though, I still doubt. Several times this season, I have gathered all of the ingredients and dumped them into the mixing bowl, and each time I was still tempted to add a splash of water (not something I do, but I’m always tempted!). The day was dry. The sausage was extra lean. I doubted that this time it would all mix in. I just knew it needed a little help.
But I managed to resist temptation and just let the mixer work its magic. Lo and behold, it all mixed in beautifully and worked well. No issues. No remnants. Just excellently blended dough, ready to be shaped and baked up into balls of goodness.
I often view life the same way.
There are some situations that just need miracles. Huge intervention that nothing on earth can help. And I know that the God I serve, the Father who claims me as His beloved child, can accomplish those miracles.
But more of life is like an unmixed bowl of sausage ball ingredients. It’s all there. And somewhere deep inside, I know that God has provided every ingredient and circumstance needed to make it all work.
But I doubt.
I convince myself that there will be remnants. Little things left incomplete. Imperfections. Minor disappointments in an otherwise good thing. And I think I need to jump in and help. Add a little of this or that to the mix to make sure it all works right.
And my little bit of this or that acts a lot like adding water to a sausage ball mix. It knocks the balance off. Maybe just a bit, maybe a lot. But the end result is not right.
Everything I feared would happen without my intervention actually does happen because of my intervention. Because I didn’t have patience to let God work. To be enough in tune with him to act when He said act and to wait when He said wait. To trust that just because it doesn’t look like it’s going to work doesn’t mean that it won’t.
I have come to discover and learn that God’s greatest works aren’t in His huge and dramatic miracles, although those are fun to see.
His greatest works are in those times when He convinces His children to trust Him and His processes. When He helps us not add in our little bits of this and that. When He takes something that doesn’t look like it’s going to work and makes it work, smoothly and naturally, simply because it’s given enough time.
I’m not always faithful to be obedient in those times. But I want to be. I want to have the patience with life that I’ve learned to have with mixing sausage ball dough. And I pray He’ll remind me of that truth with every single batch I make.
Not Quite Ordinary 