February 13 – “Passing on the pizza”

I think I might have mentioned yesterday that Chris and I went to hear the group Salty Sounds at a local Galveston tavern.  Other than the music, which was outstanding I might add, we had heard that they serve a good pizza.  And they make them in a wood-burning brick oven.  Unique.  Well, why not?  We had been downtown since around 2:30 for the parade anyway, and the hot chocolate from MOD’s didn’t last long as an energy source.  So I made my way over to make us an order. 

Little did I know that taverns, apparently, can create their own signature pizzas that have no regard whatsoever for traditional ingredients.  Nowhere on their little menu paper was there mention of pepperoni or hamburger.  I did see the word sausage, though, but other than that I wasn’t completely sure what was on any of them.  We finally settled on one, cut the jalapenos, that appeared to be a meat-lovers of some kind.  Sounded safe. 

We settled in to listen to music and watch the Olympics on one of the big screen TV’s.  I guess that’s what you do at taverns.  Except during baseball season I would hope the Astros game is on.  Oh, and it was obvious they wanted people to drink.  A lot.  So we obliged them.  Jim’s wife Charlette got us both refills on our Dr Peppers. 

Finally the pizza arrived.  At least I think it was pizza.  It was served on a round tin plate, so I guess that was a clue.  The pizza itself, however was nowhere near round.  Kind of a blob-ish, amoeba-shaped flat piece of dough.  Very thin.  Like, as thick as a dime, maybe?  There were some pepperonis scattered on top, along with what was supposed to be that afore-mentioned sausage.  The cheese was there.  Several colors of cheese, but hey, you can’t go wrong with cheese, right?  It had even been cut into … well, hunks.  Uneven portions of blob-ness.  I was plenty hungry, though, so I grabbed the first section and bit in.  Now, I can’t say the taste was particularly bad.  I did mention the cheese, didn’t I?  It’s just that there was not really much taste to it at all.  The sausage was more like fill dirt.  The pepperoni was fine.  The dough, if this is possible, was extremely dough-y for something so thin. 

Now, this was my first wood-burning stone-oven pizza.  I was expecting a lot.  But if this is the end result every time … I’ll pass in the future.  Kind of like if someone who is not a believer sees someone who claims to be a believer engaging in some particularly noticeable sin.  Colors his whole perspective of what Christianity is.  At the very least, it makes it easier for him to “pass in the future.”   If you’re not going to act like a Christian, don’t claim to be one.  You’ll just confuse people. 

Psalms 33:6 says, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.”

Father, help me to be an effective wood-burning, stone-oven Christian.  I don’t want to confuse people.  Amen.