There Are Only Five Options For Temperature On Your Steak.

Consider this a public service announcement from the pleasure providing servants of the restaurant industry. If you don't have an ipod or a blackberry, I'd suggest you write this down for your future remembrance. I know sometimes I speak in a roundabout fashion, but I'm beginning to have more respect for you, dear reader, and I think it's time you heard some straight talk from me. It is this simple: there are only five options for temperature on your steak.

The options are as follows: Rare, Medium Rare, Medium, Medium Well, Well.

Now I know this may shock you and I can already hear those who know me best calling me a hypocrite due to the fact that I rarely keep rules. I understand your concern. The thing is, we are trying to run a society here. Red lights mean stop. Green means go. Baseball fans from outside of the Bronx hate the Yankees and you don't mess around with Jim. Without these and other structural trusses, life as we know it would crumble and dissolve. Allow me to add one more to this assumed list of norms: there are only five options for temperature on your steak.

Is it an example which you pine for, loyal follower? I will indulge you.

So there I was last night, waiting on a family of four. We have a rather large porterhouse steak on our menu. To give you a perspective, a normal steak in a restaurant is going to be around six or eight ounces worth of meat. Our porterhouse is around thirty-five ounces plus the bone. When I have an order for a porterhouse steak, you can imagine that I will take my time and agree upon exact specifications with my guest as to how they prefer our cooks to prepared. Now, I would like to once again remind you of the societal norm: there are only five options for temperature on your steak.

The man ordering must have identified me as the gunman on the grassy knoll or the guy who kicked his dog because he was in no mood to waste his words on me. FIne, I've been ignored by more noteworthy people! Well, as you can probably guess by now, he had no regard for the structure of said societal norms. Apparently, he prefers unpredictable chaos to well-worn paths of conventional wisdom.

He- I would like my steak between Medium Rare and Medium.

Me- You would like your steak between a red center and a pink center?

He- Yes. I want my steak between Medium Rare and Medium.

Me (anticipating, as if prophetically, the disaster which could come from telling my cook to cook a 3 pound steak between two colors)- Well, sir, I have to tell my cook one of those temperatures.

He (becoming agitated and now pointing in-between the two temperatures on the menu with his salad knife)- I would like the steak in-between these two temperatures.

Me (my polite words having been exhausted)- I understand what you are saying. Please understand that my cook must aim at one of these two steaks. Which one would you like?

He (frustrated with my incompetence)- fine, then. Cook it at Medium Rare if you have to.

Me- Absolutely, I will. Thank You.

It never ceases to amaze me how unhappy we can be with the lives that we live. I am convinced more and more that dudes who feel the need to re-write menus are the same ones who are constantly wanting to rewrite their own lives. But we all do, don't we? We may not want to rewrite all of it, but certainly a failure here and a heartbreak here, right? I don't know what was bugging this guy but I am willing to be that he is unhappy with his own story.

We should watch how we think of the story that God is writing in us. Paul, the tentmaker, author, pastor, and Apostle, wrote: "But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

It was not Paul's past or present that got first place in his thinking, but his future. Yes, he had made mistakes. Yes, he had hurt others and been hurt himself. Yes, he had plenty of reason to be unhappy with his story. Yes, he had plenty of reason to want to rewrite his life.

The difference between the way he handled life and the way so many of us do was that he had his sights set high enough that he didn't have to rewrite a menu to feel significant. He didn't have to break down the societal norms to know that he was unique. He could rest in what God was doing in his life and let insignificant details be insignificant.

I hate to think of myself as a crusader, much less a warrior in the battle for conventional norms. But I am learning to focus on the things that really count. The people around me are much more important than the circumstances around me. When I'm thinking like I should, I can see a glimmer of the way things really are.

Then, among other benefits, I can also see the truth that there are only five options for temperature on your steak.