Take Your Time
Dear Friends,
I'm not sure if this ever happens to you, but I regularly have random pieces of scripture run through my head at the strangest times. For example, this morning, as I was savoring my first cup of coffee, the phrase “taste and see that the Lord is good” popped into my mind. I’m sure it’s because I was tasting that first delicious cup of coffee for the day, and my brain was making some sort of random connection.
However, over the years as this has happened, I’ve learned to pay attention to these random pops of scripture because it has often turned out to be that God is actually using them to try direct my thoughts. So as I sipped my coffee this morning, I decided to ponder the phrase, “taste and see that the Lord is good”, and see what God might have for me.
In case you’re not familiar with this phrase, it comes from Psalm 34:8, and the full verse is, “Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in Him!” I know that the reference to “tasting” God is a figurative one, but it has all sorts of wonderful applications for us, but the one that I kept coming back to this morning was related to food (maybe because I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet!). What I kept thinking was how we can experience food when we taste it. For example, when we're eating something really good, we take our time and “experience it” - and we do that by slowing down and actually paying attention to what we're eating - and enjoying every bite. We enjoy the smell, the sight, and the actual taste of it. In other words, when we’re enjoying our food, we tend to slow down, and try and make the experience last as long as we can.
On the other hand, when we're eating something quickly, or on the run, or that we don't think is special - we can often eat it without even tasting it. We don't pay attention to what it is we're shoveling in our mouths, we just get it in so that we can keep going. It's usually the approach we take when we're eating fast food. It's not something we take a lot of time to experience.
As I thought about all of that, I saw a great correlation to our relationship with God, because all too often I think we approach God like we approach fast food. We need to nourish ourselves, so we rush through it - not really focused on what it is that we're doing. But the Psalmist tells us to slow down, take time, and experience God - take time to taste and see that He is good. Then he finishes the passage by telling us that, if we do this, if we take refuge in God, we will find joy - something we all need.
So today, let's take time to slow down and truly experience God. Let’s look for Him in the world around us; let’s see Him at work in our conversations; let’s open our eyes to how He is moving us through the day; and let’s listen as He whispers to us through our circumstances. Today, let’s take the time to intentionally taste and see that our Lord is good.
Amen?
Daniel