Who Thought To Fry That?

Every year when the State Fair of Texas rolls around, I’m fascinated by the new foods people create. I’m not a huge State Fair person, and being gluten-free means most of the fried creations are off limits for me anyway. But I still find myself reading the stories about what someone has decided to fry this year.

And this year, one caught my attention: Deep Fried Ranch.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Don’t get me wrong. I like ranch. Ranch with French fries? Absolutely. Tater tots? Of course. Chicken nuggets? Yes. I even put it on a salad, which I believe was its original purpose.

But deep-fried? Who thinks of these things?

Ranch dressing has already had quite a year. During this summer's World Cup, international visitors apparently fell in love with it. So many people were trying to take bottles home that the TSA joined the conversation, reminding travelers that bottles of ranch weren’t going to make it through airport security in their carry-on. Their advice was basically: put the ranch in your checked luggage.

Only in America could ranch dressing become part of someone’s World Cup experience. And apparently, only in Texas could we look at ranch’s newfound international fame and think, You know what this needs? A deep fryer.

But that’s the part I keep coming back to. Somebody had to look at something as familiar and ordinary as ranch dressing and wonder, What would happen if…?

That question feels wonderfully human.

Children ask questions like that all the time. They wonder. They experiment. They imagine possibilities that the rest of us have learned to dismiss. Somewhere along the way, many of us become less curious.

Experience teaches us what works and what doesn’t. We develop routines and become comfortable with the familiar. That experience can give us wisdom, which is a gift. But sometimes it also teaches us to decide what is possible before we have even wondered about it. We’ve tried that before. That will never work. That’s just the way things are. I already know what I think about that.

I think following Jesus invites us to recover a little of our curiosity.

Not because every new idea is good. Deep Fried Ranch may actually prove that point. But because we believe God is still at work. And if God is still at work, perhaps there are things we haven’t noticed yet, people we haven’t really seen, possibilities we haven’t imagined, and places where grace is already stirring that we might miss because we decided ahead of time what God could or couldn’t do.

Maybe one of the prayers we need from time to time is, God, help me stay curious. Help me notice what I have stopped noticing. Help me ask questions before I assume I already know the answers. Help me remain open to the possibility that you might surprise me.

I don’t know if I’ll ever taste Deep Fried Ranch. Being gluten-free gives me a pretty good excuse not to find out.

But I hope I never lose the part of me that hears the words “Deep Fried Ranch” and wonders, Who in the world thought of that? And I hope I can bring that same curiosity to my faith, staying open enough to keep asking, What if?

What about you? Where might God be inviting you to be a little more curious?

With Gratitude,

Rev. Rodney Whitfield
Senior Pastor
Aldersgate UMC