by Rhonda Rhea @RhondaRhea

Buffet strategies. I have them. Mostly they fail, but I have them.

Stratagem one: load up the plate on the first go-round so I don’t have to go back. But guess what. I always have to go back. It’s a buffet. The beauty of the buffet is that you get to go back. Again. And then again. And then, two belt-notches later, again. Don’t we all feel compelled to eat our money’s worth? So: one more time again. And again.

One plate? That’s an illusion. So from here on out, I don’t even bother listing strategies and sub-strategies. I basically move to science. Getting the potatoes-to-chicken ratio just right, for instance, then getting those to work together as the fulcrum for the roll—that’s prime.

Also illusion-related (and speaking of “prime”), picture me trying not to look uncomfortable while I’m asking the prime rib guard for another slice.

Discomforts aside, there’s a freedom at the buffet I should highlight. Because while it’s true it might be uncomfortable asking that meat soldier to carve you some beef with his bayonet, you can have as much as you want, and you’re free to pair it with whatever floats your gravy boat. In fact, you want an egg roll with your fajitas? Go ahead. Beef stroganoff next to your schnitzel? Sure. Shrimp and sauerkraut? Well that’s gross, but you’re still free. You can fuse all the fusions.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I’ve been buffet strategizing—figuring the fractions, fulcrums, and fusions—I start feeling like I have an endless buffet kind of to-do list. A lot on my plate, as it were.

There’s a psalm I read often. It’s my go-to psalm when my real to-do list is long and I feel I have a lot on my plate. Ironically, it gives me an entirely new list of to-dos. And it’s delicious. “God, you are my God; I eagerly seek you. I thirst for you; my body faints for you in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water. So I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory. My lips will glorify you because your faithful love is better than life. So I will bless you as long as I live; at your name, I will lift up my hands. You satisfy me as with rich food; my mouth will praise you with joyful lips” (Psalm 63:1-5 CSB).

David was in the wilderness. Discomfort to the max. But look what he puts on his to-do list: seek, thirst, gaze, glorify, bless. Go to the Lord. It’s the strategy above strategies. Go to Him. Then go again. And again. What a difference it makes when we seek our Creator throughout every day—worshiping the One we were created for.

What happens when we do? “You satisfy me as with rich food” (vs. 5). Every time we choose to come to Him instead of seeking all-things-temporary, we find the life we always hungered for.

I want to start my every day right there in that place of surrender. And then I want to go back again. And then one more time again. There’s real freedom at this endless buffet of joy fused with purpose.

That’s my conclusion. It’s no illusion. The very best fusion.

Rhonda Rhea is an award-winning humor columnist for great magazines such as HomeLife, Leading Hearts, The Pathway, and many more. She is the author of 19 books, including the popular romantic comedies co-authored with her daughter Kaley Rhea, Off-Script & Over-Caffeinated and Turtles in the Road. Rhonda and Kaley have also teamed up with Bridges TV host Monica Schmelter for the Messy to Meaningful books and TV projects. Along with Beth Duewel, Rhonda writes the Fix Her Upper series, and she also co-authored Unruffled: Thriving in Chaos with Edie Melson. She speaks at conferences and events from coast to coast, serves on many boards and committees, and stays busy as a publishing consultant. Rhonda says you can find her living near St. Louis drinking too much coffee and snort-laughing with her pastor/husband, five grown children, and a growing collection of the most exceptional grandbabies.