"Cake Like That...."

A pastor I know told me this story:

There was a woman in his congregation who baked a cake and gave it to him one Sunday to take home and enjoy. I think it might have been a birthday cake. So he brought the cake home and everyone in the family had a piece. But they found it tasted horrible. He told me the cake was so bad no one ate any of it and they threw the whole thing in the garbage.

Days later, he saw the woman again and she asked how he liked the cake she had made him. Such a question would present something of a moral dilemma for many Christians.

Is it okay to lie in such a situation, so as to not hurt the woman's feelings: "Oh, that cake was delicious! You really are quite the cook." Or should the truth be told: "That cake you made was terrible. We threw the whole thing in the garbage." Perhaps even adding, for emphasis, "It was so bad the dog wouldn't eat it."

How would you respond?

Well, this pastor, with wisdom that I think was akin to that of Solomon, responded, with a big smile, by saying:

"Cake like that don't last long in my house!"

The woman was pleased as could be to hear it.

My family still laughs over this story and, on occassion, we've been known to jokingly employ some variation of the clever rhetoric amongst ourselves.

4 comments:

Michael Bunker said...

That reminds me of a man I once knew who did a radio show. He was terribly arrogant and prideful, and after every show, no matter how bad it was, he would say to me.. "Well, what did you think of that?". His staff would stare at me, because they knew that I wouldn't lie, and they knew that I didn't like it, so I would pause and say... "You know, you've never done better", or "par for the course".

I also had a spanish teacher 25 years ago who, if you said "you look nice today", would get very upset and ask you if you were implying that she didn't look nice yesterday.

Michael Bunker

Herrick Kimball said...

Michael,

The spanish teacher recollection reminds me of the time I saw an old high school buddy after many years. Marlene and I ran into him at the mall. I commented that he looked better than the last time I saw him. Marlene told me later that it was a terrible thing to say. I meant it well. He did look better than I remembered him from high school.

Marci said...

I loved the response. I will have to remember that line.... it might keep me out of trouble sometime. =)

Anonymous said...

That made me chuckle. Thank you for sharing it!

By the by, the DVD share just showed up in the mail this past Tuesday. I just thought I'd let you know about where it has progressed to.