Holy Guacamole - A Lenten Parable

No - the title isn't a misnomer. Guacamole does have a sacred space in my story. The Lord used guacamole to show me that there are places in my life that I have hought would do me deep harm. Yet, in believing Him and trusting His voice, that things that have so deeply wounded us and hurt us (whether by our own hand or the hands of others...) that Jesus can redeem. 

My prayer is this story of healing and care would bless you, encourage you, and help you as you face your own stories of stepping forward into hard healing. True healing can often be painful, but the Lord promises to help us through it. To bind up our broken hearts. To reveal His love, grace, and mercy to us in ways that deepen our union with Him. 

Scriptures and Resources Referenced:

• Ecclesiastes 3:11
• Romans 8
• With the Perrys: Christine Caine episode

You can find me on Instagram / Threads

Transcript

Carrie 0:10

Hey everyone, welcome to this Ash Wednesday edition of Honey from the Rock. I hope that you are hanging in there, and as we are looking towards the Lenten season, I pray that as you offer to the Lord the sacrifice of praise, of withholding, of letting go, whatever you've chosen in any of those categories, that you will find the Lord meeting you there. As we walk into a very somber and serious time going into Easter, that whatever we are releasing to the Lord, whatever we are foregoing, that in the midst of that we would know his good pleasure, that we would get a deeper revelation of him through his word, that we would come to know the Lord in a in a deeper, more sanctifying and satisfying way.

Carrie 1:13

And my prayer for this Lenten season for both you and me is that this just wouldn't be a season where we have things that we give up to the Lord for 40 days, but that we would go into this season with intentionality of truly leaving things at the foot of the cross of Jesus, and that we would put ourselves in a place of true surrender before him, our our hands open before him, our hearts laid down, our minds wholly fixed and steadied on him. And that even with whatever strength we have, whether that feels little to us or we're operating in great strength, either way, that we would bow before Jesus. We'd bow before the Father, before the Holy Spirit, and and truly surrender things that He is calling us to in this season, and that we would see the beautiful, grace-filled ripple effects of that surrender up to the resurrection and beyond.

Carrie 2:21

That this wouldn't just be a season where we feel like we've just got to give something up these next 40 days, but that in the act of surrender, as Jesus surrendered his position with the Father to come down and be incarnate in man, you know, God becoming man and walking his life of perfection, that he was willing to surrender everything to the Father. And though we are not perfect, that that same heart of surrender would be at work within us.

Carrie 2:56

And this is something I am praying for my own walk with Jesus. I there is a lot in my life, friends, that I am seeing that I truly need to surrender to the Lord and and get my hands off of, right? Sometimes there are things that we hold on to so tightly because letting them go is more difficult than we thought it would be. And sometimes we know that the Lord is calling us to let something go, and we're afraid. We're afraid to let it go because whatever it is that we're holding on to, it's so familiar to us. And letting it go means we are stepping into a place unknown, and yet it's usually a place where the Lord wants to deepen our trust and reliance on him, our dependence on him, and show himself to us in an even more beautifully faithful way, a more grace-filled way. And that has certainly been my experience over the years, and it is something that I am walking through with the Lord right now.

Carrie 4:02

And actually, it's part of the reason why I'm sure some of you have noticed that I that I have named this episode Holy Guacamole. And that's not, I'm not trying to be super cheeky, maybe a little cheeky, not super cheeky, but maybe a little. Um, and actually the the the name the name of this episode is for a literal event. And the reason why I wanted to tell this story today is A, because I really felt like the Lord was was telling me to share it. And B, I want to give the Lord all the praise and the glory for something that he did for me six months ago that is still having amazing ripple effects that I could not have seen at that point, but also because I want to encourage you at the end of this story, but I will get to that in a second.

Carrie 5:00

So the reason why this episode is called Holy Guacamole is because in August of 2025, the Lord healed me of my avocado allergy. Now, my friends, when I tell you I had an avocado, avocado allergy, I mean I was an epi pen carrying, afraid to look cross-side at an avocado because it might make my throat close up allergy. I it it's it gradually came on in like 2009. It was very bizarre and just got worse and worse and worse throughout the years to the point where I could not touch them. If I touched them, I immediately my throat started closing up, itching. Um, and you know, just just general panic, general panic set in. So my allergist had prescribed an EpiPen for me.

Carrie 5:59

And, you know, so I was card-carrying Bubble Girl, you know, shout out to all of my five fellow uh EpiPen users because, you know, that's just always fun to have to carry around something that will save your life. Um, but to also just live in hyper awareness sometimes of certain things that can literally try to destroy your entire life. So I, yeah, so it was bad. It was bad avocado allergy. It was listed everywhere in my medical records and at all my doctors and all that kind of thing. So, and I also had really, really horrific seasonal allergies. And those actually, I could pinpoint, got worse once I had my hysterectomy. I developed hay fever and a horrific allergy to ragweed and was just absolutely in love with my Zerdtech and Benadryl sometimes at night, and I just couldn't breathe. So I I had issues. I mean, I probably I still do, but these were issues stacked on top of my other issues.

Carrie 7:01

Well, last August I had a moment with the Lord, and for verification, you can talk to my mother about this because she knows how bad my allergy was, as well as my friend Kim. Um, they both know how bad my allergies were. But, and please, as I tell this next part, do not judge my fast food choice. Okay. So um, I was at Taco Bell, all right. And the reason I was at Taco Bell is a, I might as well just admit it. We're going into Lent, I will confess, I I love Taco Bell. Um, cheesy gordita crunch, yes, please. So, but they had these Cantina chicken quesadillas, um, which were quesadillas with crispy cheese on the outside, guys. Like, how do how does one resist that? It just sounded so good. And per usual, it was something that that I that came with a side of guacamole, and you could also get avocado ranch packets. And so I ordered my usual and then said, Oh, please hold the guacamole and please don't, you know, put it in my bag.

Carrie 8:08

And in that moment, the sweetest and softest nudge came to my heart, and I really felt like the Lord was asking me, well, telling me, get the guacamole. Here's the thing about this, friends. That was the day, of course, that I had forgotten my EpiPen. I didn't have it with me, and I had no Benadryl with me. But I decided to get the guacamole. So I ordered my my quesadilla and said, you know what? Forget what I said, throw the guacamole in there. So I pay, I get my bag, I pull into a parking spot, and I'm sitting there.

Carrie 8:53

If you have met me in person, please picture this. You know, I'm facing west. I can see Pikes Peak from my car, and the sun is setting because it's like 5:30 on an August afternoon. And I have a wedge of crispy chicken cantina quesadillo and quesadilla in one hand and a two-ounce cup of guacamole in the other. And I'm having an internal debate for a moment, as one would. And I'm like, Lord, if I didn't hear you right, this is gonna go sideways super quick. It's gonna be bad, and it yeah, it's just it's not gonna be good. But, you know, the Lord is faithful, and I have walked with Jesus for a long time, and I don't know his voice all the time. There are ways that he has tested me and it has shown me times that I have not heard his voice. There have been times that he has showed me where I thought I heard his voice and I didn't. But this was literally one time where I really thought that I had heard the Lord.

Carrie 10:07

So I was like, you know what, Lord? I am gonna trust you. I'm gonna trust that I heard you and I'm I'm gonna eat this guacamole. But what I decided to do was not just dip my finger and get like a little bit of guacamole off the top. Because as you'll remember, I said, if I even touched it, boom, immediate itching, immediate throat closing. I decided to take my crispy cantina wedge of quesadilla, and I dipped that sucker full-fledged into that two-ounce cup, my friends. I am telling you, I was like, Lord, if this was you, then I'm gonna show you that I believed you and I'm gonna eat this full blaze of glory ahead. And if it wasn't you, well, you know, at least it was fun while it lasted.

Carrie 10:59

So I dipped it in there and I took a bite. And friends, I'm telling you, literally nothing happened. I chewed, I swallowed, I looked at this cup of guacamole, and I looked at my quesadilla, and I was like, I'm going back in. And because literally, I mean, the instant I would touch an avocado or guacamole, like it was, it was just an instantaneous reaction. And I realized that the Lord at some point, I don't know when, and I don't know how he decided to do it, but he had healed me of an allergy that had been really dangerous to me for a decade and a half of my life. 15 years I had really struggled with this allergy. And that was also when I started to notice that my seasonal allergies had gotten a lot better.

Carrie 11:58

So, why am I telling you the story going into Lent? That is an excellent question. Number one, like I said, I want to give glory to the Lord. There are things that we go through and ways that the Lord moves in our lives that sometimes we don't even notice. And we don't realize what he's done until we're put in a position where the thing that we have feared the most or we've wrestled with the most or has made us so sick, the Lord shows us that he has healed that and redeemed that. And I and why he chose to do it at this point, I really couldn't tell you. But I will tell you, I have enjoyed obscene amounts of guacamole since August. Like it is my it is, you guys, guacamole is so good. And that's brought me a lot of joy.

Carrie 12:49

But I, as I said at the beginning, I I have kind of isolated that event to, oh my gosh, Lord, you're so amazing. You healed me of my guacamole allergy, and I'm so thankful. And I looked at it as an isolated event. Lord, thank you so much. Amazing. I can go forward and I can eat guacamole and I don't have to worry about touching avocados. And so many of my friends and family were so kind and were always looking out for me, making sure that no avocados touched anything. And I mean, just seriously, thank you to everybody who was always so kind to me when I couldn't eat the bad green fruit.

Carrie 13:32

But today, today, I will tell you, friends, was was a difficult day for a lot of reasons. Sometimes when you are walking through grief and you're dealing with things, it just hits you funny. And some sometimes those days are harder, harder than others. And sometimes they're darker than others, where things don't necessarily feel hopeless, but maybe you feel stuck and you feel like there's no way forward, or maybe you feel like the losses you have experienced have been so great and so deep that the gaping hole in your heart just doesn't feel like it could possibly ever be filled.

Carrie 14:14

And I was having a discussion with my mom this morning, and she was as always amazingly encouraging. And then I was texting with a friend today, and she was also being incredibly encouraging as I just confessed to her some areas where I am struggling and really having to fight to believe the Lord and to really move forward and trust that though parts of my story look really messy right now and like a tangle of knots, that what the Lord is putting together is is something something beautiful. And and she referenced avocados, which made me think of this story. And I had asked her, I was like, oh my gosh, did I tell you about that? And she was like, Yes, you did.

Carrie 15:02

But as the story came to my remembrance, once again the Lord caught my attention, and he caught my attention in the way that that story wasn't just a one-time physical event. There was something that the Lord did for me in it that was deeper. And, you know, sometimes the Lord does things, and and what it is on the surface is what he allows us to see, and that's amazing. And then, but he knows the ripple effects in eternity. And sometimes, a lot of times, I think he does something for us or he moves in our lives in a particular way, and we see it as one thing in the moment, and then at different points, he unravels it and helps us see the the deeper meaning in it. And that was one of those moments for me today where that story of being healed from guacamole, like a severe avocado allergy, actually is something that the Lord is using to show me about how I will walk through what I'm going through now.

Carrie 16:16

And really what hit me was I think a lot of times when a lot of times I can get really bad myopic vision. I can only see what's in front of me and really up close. And I have a hard time seeing any depth or light or shadow. I tend to have a hard time seeing things in 3D or to be able to step back and see the bigger picture. And part of it is just because sometimes I get stuck in a loop because I am a very intense feeler and thinker. And anybody who is listening to this who knows me is probably laughing really hard because it's true. And they're just that I can get I can tend to get stuck in some things.

Carrie 17:08

But when the Lord reminded me of what he did for me in August, he reminded me again that I I had a choice in that moment. I had a choice to either eat the guacamole or not, to trust that I had heard the Lord's voice or to slough it off. And when I chose to believe the Lord and to take and eat and to not just like skim the surface, but to dip that quesadilla wedge in there and take a huge bite of of guacamole, I faced my fear of consuming something that I thought would seriously damage me and potentially kill me because it was an anaphylactic allergy.

Carrie 17:58

And today I the Lord reminded me that the things that I'm required to face in my life, even though in the past they have caused me pain, they have wounded me, they have been things that have been a struggle for me in some way, things that I have fought to avoid. Because maybe unlike the avocado, I thought, you know, but I thought emotionally this could really do some damage. Things that I have been afraid of. The Lord is asking me to trust him as much as I trusted him that day when I thought that he told me to eat the guacamole, and I did, and I realized he had healed me.

Carrie 18:48

And I'm I I hope this makes sense in some way, shape, or form, friends. It's making sense in my own head, and I'm probably not communicating it very clearly, but I pray that the Lord uses it anyway. And this is kind of like the this realization is kind of the apex on the heels. I was listening to a podcast episode with Jackie Hill Perry and her husband Preston, and they were interviewing Christine Cain, and Christine was sharing how she ended up having to have some work done on her knee. She had got, I think she'd gotten into an accident and really damaged her knee. And the doctor told her that the surgery was going to actually be the easiest part of her healing, and that going into post-surgical care, she really had an option about the kind of motion that she would get back in her knee. That if she wanted to fully heal and get full range of motion back, it was going to be difficult and it was going to be painful. But if she was willing to fight through that pain, that she would get her the full range of motion back in her knee and eventually there wouldn't be any pain anymore. She'd have a scar, she'd have some scar tissue, but all the pain that was required in healing will would eventually be dealt with. Or if she wanted less or a limited range of mobility, that healing wouldn't be as particularly painful. But she'd I and if I'm remembering this correctly, I pray I am. But just that the that the second option of lesser mobility would be less painful, but she'd also have less range of motion.

Carrie 20:36

So I have been mulling that for a few days, and and then the Lord brought this guacamole story to my remembrance. And so that's actually what I want to encourage you with. And for me, the Lord used a horrific allergy that I've had for many years in my life to show me that I have in Jesus, at his leading, knowing his voice, I have stared head on into things that have hurt me before. And I've trusted the Lord to heal me and to carry me through what was so painful.

Carrie 21:18

And friends, I'm at another crossroads like that in my life, and I know that there are people who are listening to me who are in a similar position, where we are looking at either having to let go of things that we used to really cherish, or there are things in our life that have happened that have been so wounding and hurtful and difficult, or we faced a lot of loss and trying to grapple with the Lord and grapple with grief and deal with certain things within our hearts and our minds and our souls feels so overwhelming. And sometimes that pain feels so. So intense, and it and it hits a point and it hits an apex where we're literally crying out to the Lord that we can't take it anymore. Our hearts are so broken and so shattered, and the pain is so intense that it feels impossible to move forward.

Carrie 22:22

But I'm realizing today, friends, and and I'm I am telling you, today was one of the crappiest days I have had in a very long time. But in the midst of conversations with my precious mom and a precious friend, there was the reminder that in the midst of even all the pain and all the fear and all of the grief, that I do still know the voice of the Lord, and that him and I have stared down enemies together, and he has carried me through, and it's been painful, and it's been difficult, but he has done an amazing work, and when I've come out the other side of it, even though there have been scars, there's been healing, there's been joy, there's been precious things restored to me. And I like I said, I I I eat guacamole with so much gusto now, you guys. Like I love it. It's it's so tasty.

Carrie 23:33

And that probably seems really silly on the surface, but I think the deeper spiritual meaning is there. Something that used to be so painful and really wound me, the Lord turned into something that gives me delight and gives me joy. And I know that's something that the Lord is practically working in my in my life right now. And he might even take this analogy even deeper for me at some point. But friends, going into Lent, where we are looking at sacrificing things and we are looking at giving things up to the Lord for Lent, I really want to encourage you. And I am speaking the same encouragement to myself. There are things that are good to give away or to give up. Like I am giving up social media for Lent, but not because I'm like, I've I'm spending too much time on it and it's terrible. I am spending too much time on it. It is terrible, but I am recognizing that it's really not good for my own mental health and for my own spiritual health to be on social media right now. And that it's putting me in a place where it is taking me out of contentment. I'm letting it take me out of contentment that the Lord had given me in my life.

Carrie 24:53

And it's a distraction. It's a distraction for me to avoid some of the areas where the Lord is actually calling for me to come to him so that I can be healed and that he can bind up my broken heart. But I would encourage us, friends, even as we're looking at things to give up for Lent, will we let the Holy Spirit search our heart? Are there things that we need to surrender to him? And we start in Lent and then we make sure that we never try to take them back. Issues of our hearts, things that we hold on to, whether it's unforgiveness or bitterness or resentment or jealousy or envy, if it's old wounds and things that have been said to us that just replay over and over in our minds, or things that we haven't told anybody that are still so painful, and yet the Lord sees them all.

Carrie 25:58

I don't know what Jesus is calling you to give up for Lent. I don't know what He is He is requiring of you in the season of life that you're in. But I would encourage you, as I am encouraging myself, to really pause for Ash Wednesday and not just look at, not only look at things, what we would maybe call surface things of food and drink, but that we would look at the deeper issues of our heart and see where Jesus is calling us to lay things on the altar and unlike Abraham, not pick them back up, but leave them on the altar and drive the knife through them and trust that what we are giving to the Lord and what we are telling him we are willing to let go of, that he will take and he will make beautiful and he will make right and he and he will bring justice or he will bring conviction or he will bring grace and mercy and forgiveness and freedom.

Carrie 27:10

And that was the other thing that caught my attention when I was sharing with my with my friend over text today, as I said, all of our conversation had brought to mind the view the verse from Ecclesiastes 3, verse 11, he has made everything appropriate, says the NASB, in its time. But I think in the in the New King James or in the King James, it says he has made everything beautiful in his time. And friends, no matter what you are facing, no matter what questions you have for the Lord and the things that you don't understand, he will make everything beautiful in its time.

Carrie 27:50

And we will not always have all the answers. We will oftentimes lack understanding about why we are going through certain things or why we are struggling. Sometimes, though, we also know exactly why we are struggling with certain things and why things are difficult. Wherever you are, wherever you are, whatever you are dealing with, whatever you are walking through, I do know one thing that Jesus wants us to hold so dear and so close in this Lenten season is that He has conquered it all. One thing that we can confidently meditate on in this Lenten season is, oh death, where is your victory? Right? Where is the victory of the grave and where is the sting of death? For us here on earth who lose our loved ones, this the sting is still great. But on the day that we are taken to the Lord and see him face to face when he calls us home, it's all gone in an instant.

Carrie 28:54

And I also truly believe, friends, that there are places that sting us deeply. And through the observance of Lent, through looking to the cross of Jesus, where our sins and our debts have been nailed through the gracious love of our Savior and our Lord Jesus, through the love of the Father, through the love of the Holy Spirit, that there are hopeful things that He wants to give us this Lenten season, that He wants to cleanse our hearts, He wants us to experience the washing of regeneration, that He wants us to learn how to be a holy people, a royal priesthood set apart, sanctified for His kingdom work now.

Carrie 29:46

And so that's my prayer going into Lent for myself and for all of you. Maybe it's not guacamole that the Lord uses. Maybe it's something that is so particularly precious and dear to you, but I pray in some way, shape, or form that you experience the Lord's restoration, his healing, whether that's spiritual or mental or physical, however, Jesus wants to do it, that there are places in you that you know he is tenderly reaching into and that and that he is healing you, that he is restoring things that you thought couldn't be restored. And as we seek to lay everything before Jesus and surrender it to his nail-scarred hands, that we would not forget his great love for us, that he is abounding in mercy and full of steadfast love, friends, and that we would see the grace of surrender in this in this time, but that we would see the hope of surrender, and that those things that we give over to the Lord, that we surrender to his care and his will and his wisdom. Friends, those things are are held by him and they are redeemed by him, however he sees fit in whatever way is best.

Carrie 31:26

But I pray for each of us today that we would see just a little bit more clearly today, and that our heart vision would grow clearer. The beauty of Jesus, the tenderness of his mercy, the kindness and his discipline, the favor of his grace, though it is unmerited and we have done nothing to deserve it, and the boundlessness of his love and care. And I pray that we know this not just as abstract truth that we can assent to because we read it in scripture, but that we know the truth of the scripture and we see that the Lord in his in his kindness and faithfulness has made it the experience of our lives.

Carrie 32:21

God bless you, my friends. I am praying for you all today. And I pray that as today closes and you lay your head on that pillow, that you know that the Lord is with you, and he desires for each of us to know him more intimately and deeply. Like Tim Keller has said so many times before he passed, we are infinitely more sinful than we could ever imagine. And yet we are more deeply loved by the Lord than we can ever understand. Amen.