Taste and See!

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Psalm 34:8

 

 "Oh, taste…" Well, I don't need anyone to tell me twice.  I'm right in there, tasting away. 

We have to eat, right?  If you have gained a few (or a lot) of pounds by eating too much, then you've got a whole nuther set of problems.

I had gastric-bypass surgery in 2004 and lost 90 pounds.  I can't eat the same things I used to eat.  I can't tolerate much sugar, so I'm constantly checking the labels to see how many sugar grams there are.  It's absolutely astounding how much sugar can be in one granola bar!  I don't know, maybe I was addicted to sugar before my surgery.  I couldn't eat very much of anything for months afterward, certainly not sugary stuff, so that forced abstinence may have broken the sugar addiction.  I'm just speculating here.

One thing that's kind of funny about it is that I don't crave sugar.  I don't miss it at all.  If something sugary looks good to me, I'm just hungry and a little food that I can tolerate will take care of that.  

When I eat, I have to pick and choose what I can eat.  If I don't choose wisely, I can end up very physically sick.  It's so bad, I'd have to feel better to die!  Sometimes pain is the best motivator we've got.

So I look over my options of what will work.  I try to eat slowly and chew every bite very well.  I have to remember that if things don't go down right, they will rebel at some point in my body. 

Because I have only so much space to fill, I reach for the stuff I like best first.  I'll see how things are going and then add something else if I feel I can handle it.  All this took years of practice and hit-or-miss methods of getting what my body needs to function.

So, yeah, I know something about tasting.  But how do you "taste" the Lord?  Our need for Him is even more basic than our need for food.  And yet we look all around Him for things to satisfy us in any way we can.

When we want to know what something tastes like, we take a small bite or spoonful to get a sample of the whole.  We can usually tell by the sample how good or bad the whole will be.

What if we "sampled" God's goodness by giving Him a chance to show us how good He is?  What if we took a sample of His goodness and meditated on it and thought about it.  I'm not particularly thinking of scripture here.  I'm talking about asking the Lord to give you a sample of His goodness and then watch what He does.  And then from His holy "sample," we will know how good the Whole really is.

 



Treasures Old and New

I heard a Sunday School teacher say recently that it is absolutely imperative, no getting around it, you have to memorize lots of scripture to have a deeper relationship with God.  That was upsetting to some because they find it impossible to memorize much of anything.  The teacher said it had to be done, period.  He encouraged everyone to try.

I don't think he is right.  I don't believe God is playing word games with us.  I believe that we should keep scripture close to us, and one of the ways to do that is to memorize it.  But there are other ways, too. 

How about memorizing just for a day or two, just for an hour or two?  I'm thinking God would be more pleased with that than someone fretting over it.

Would He rather hear you say a verse or two, maybe even paraphrase it (making sure not to change the meaning of it) while you go about your day? 

Would He rather hear you read it from an index card or a sticky note and then think about that scripture and what it means to you? 

God wants us to talk to him.  He knows what's in our hearts.  He knows how we struggle to understand.  He is pleased when we keep trying.

My youngest grandchild is almost 2 years old.  He talks a lot!  What is he saying?  God only knows (and I mean that literally).  But we don't care!  We think it's cute!  We encourage him to make whatever noise he wants to make!

Is it possible that, because we're God's children, He might take the same approach?  He's happy to hear from us.  He wants us to know Him better.  He doesn't care if we can quote Him exactly.  He wants us to do our best, and, even more, He wants to help us do our best, whatever we're doing.

Please don't misunderstand me.  I am not saying memorizing scripture is not important.  I believe it is extremely important to closely study God's word.  I believe that for those who can, memorizing scripture is a good thing.  But to those who can't, it might be a stumbling block that I don't believe comes from God.

Ultimately, it all revolves around God and His love for His children.  It's not really about memorizing scripture; it's taking scripture a little piece at a time and reading it, saying it out loud, looking at it from all angles, asking God what He thinks about it. 

He doesn't care if our words are not perfectly spoken.  Just as I do with my grandbaby, God will take anything genuinely given and rejoice over it.

So he (Jesus) told them, “Every student of the Scriptures who becomes a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like someone who brings out new and old treasures from the storeroom.”            Matthew 13:52 (CEV)