Longhorn Steak House has this awesome salad on the menu called a Grilled Chicken Winter Brie.  It’s made of “winter field greens tossed in a blackberry vinaigrette with warm brie bites, dried cherries, red onion and mandarin oranges.”  Oh Baby.

It’s March, everybody I know is eating salads, and I am obsessed with this one.  I’ve had it three times at three different lunches in the past two weeks.

The catch is, there is no way this is a light salad…it just can’t be.  And some lunches, rich like drizzled blackberry vinaigrette, are pretty heavy, too.  Thank God for warm brie bites…little nuggets of comfort food that they are.

We dive in, and sometimes when you dive in you dive in deep and you realize that life isn’t a bowl of brie bites at all.  In fact, sometimes life just bites.   There are not always quick and easy answers.  My friends around the table do not have it figured out any better than I do, and  sometimes we find ourselves at a pretty messy table.

The good news is…the best, most nourishing meals happen at the messy tables.

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matt 9:10-13)