Taste and See…

Not all of the following thoughts are original, but none the less they have been on my mind for the past few days.  Partial credit goes to Bishop Malcolm Smith.

“O taste and see that the LORD is good…”  Psalms 34:8 

It’s funny how we jump into things without even thinking about them when you’re young.  Let’s face it, new things are exciting and we don’t always think them through.  I’m horrible at thinking things through sometimes.  I’d rather commit and then figure out how everything is going to work.  Am I young?  Most of you would say, “No” while laughing and pointing out the lack of hair on my head.  So maybe I’m immature or refuse to act like a guy who is 31, but I love the risk involved in jumping without looking.

If you have ever been around a baby, you have noticed that they like to put everything they can get there hands on into there mouths.  They don’t care what it is.  Trust me on this one.  I have seen my kids put things in there mouths that would cause you to gag.  I’m not kidding, babies are gross.  All kidding aside, that is how we should approach God.  Remember the story of the kids who were coming to see Jesus and the disciples tried to keep them away.  Jesus tells them to let the children through and goes on to tell them they should approach God like a child.

That brings me back to the verse above.  “Taste and see.”  Which of these words is less risky to do?  “See.”  It doesn’t take much faith or risk to take a look at something.  I mean you walk up, take and look and it’s done.  You haven’t really experienced anything yet.  Now “taste” is something altogether different.  I mean you can look at a world famous Mike Johnson one inch thick, marinated for 72 hours rib eye steak and you don’t know what your missing.  But you taste that steak and I tell you what, you will wonder how you ever lived this long without one.  I have had the great honor of consuming two of these said steaks, and now I know what I am in for when I see one.

It is the same way with God.  You can come to church and observe, but this alone will not change you.  Nothing changes until you “taste” God.  It is through the tasting that we see God.  Matt Wright can tell me all day long how awesome Goliath is (the new roller coaster at Six Flags), but I will never know how incredible of a coaster it is until I ride that coaster.  Sure I could go and look at it and observe the other people riding it and ask them their thoughts afterwards, but I will never fully comprehend or grasp the reality of it’s awesomeness until I actually “taste” the coaster.

You have to taste God before you can really see how awesome He is.  You will never know God’s love and grace until you taste.  And just as in my previous post, this is something you have to do.  None of us would enjoy someone driving food down our throats.  You have to make the decision that you are going to forget about what you have or haven’t seen, and just taste God.  You see, the verse already tells you that God is good.  There are not going to be any surprises in the end.  God is good.  You just have to make the decision to go ahead and taste.  Stop being an observer and “taste” what God has for you.  I promise you won’t regret it.