Having Faith Is a Tasteful Thing to Do

You had driven past the same restaurant countless times but never seriously thought about stopping to see what it was like. Maybe the exterior wasn’t very inviting, or the name didn’t catch your attention. Then a friend recommended it, so you decided, “Let’s give it a try.” To your surprise, the food tasted great, the service at the restaurant was excellent, and you wondered, “Why didn’t we try this place years ago?”

 

Or you’ve always avoided eating a certain kind of food. Not because you didn’t like it – because you had never even tried it. It just didn’t seem like something that would appeal to your palate. Then someone you were dining with ordered that food and insisted you try it. “Just a taste. You don’t know what you’re missing.” With a shrug you agreed, and instantly your tastebuds started doing a happy dance. After resisting even to try it, you were scratching your head thinking, “I should have tried this long ago!”

 

This was the case for us some years back. We’d driven by a certain pizza place many times but had never made the right turn to sample their menu. We already had a go-to pizza restaurant, so why bother going somewhere else? One day we couldn’t agree on where to eat, so we opted to go there. A friend had often said the food was really good. To our surprise, their salads were excellent and the pies were better than any we’d had anywhere else in town. It quickly became our favorite.

 

Maybe you’ve seen an infant initially balk at opening her mouth and trying a spoonful of new food, but mommy finally successfully gets some in despite tightened lips. Baby’s eyes suddenly get wide with excitement and she’s opening her mouth, eager for another bite.

 

In each case, initial reluctance was overcome by just a taste, a little sampling. That’s all it takes. I’ve experienced this spiritually as well. I’d gone to church for most of my life but had kept my “relationship” with God at an arm’s length at best. Most of the time I just ignored Him altogether, except for moments of crisis when I’d send a few “flare prayers” heavenward. Once the “emergency” had passed, however, I would resume living my life as usual, with no thought of God. 

 

I’d even read the Bible front to back during my senior year of high school purely out of curiosity, but my spiritual life was like glancing as goodies through a bakery window but never going inside to buy anything. Then I started attending a church where the pastor taught the Bible in a way I’d never heard before. For the first time, I took a real “taste.” 

 

The Bible talks about this. Psalm 34:8 says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him.” And in 1 Peter 2:3 the apostle writes, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

 

Unfortunately, many people never allow themselves even the first taste. Like the little kid who turns up his nose at carrots or peas or even mashed potatoes, folks have already decided for whatever reason that giving faith in God a try isn’t something they’re going to do.

 

However, my own experience and that of countless people I’ve gotten to know over the years serve as proof such a choice is a foolish one. It’s not always easy, sometimes downright difficult. But a life of walking with Jesus Christ is infinitely better than insisting on living life without Him.

 

What does it mean to “taste that the Lord is good”? For me it means to read some of the promises in the Scriptures, truths God has revealed about Himself, and act upon them in faith. One of them for me early on was Proverbs 3:5-6, which says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Never once has He failed to guide me, often far beyond my greatest hopes and expectations.

 

Countless books have been written and sermons beyond number given to explain what happens when people seriously “taste” what the Lord has to offer. Galatians 5:22-23 gives a brief list summarizing just some of the many benefits of having God in our lives: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control….” Who wouldn’t want those in their life?

 

Then there are grace and mercy, freely given even though we all are so undeserving. If we’re honest with ourselves and recognize how our sinfulness is so distasteful to a holy, righteous God, the assurance of receiving complete and utter forgiveness from Him is almost unbelievable. John Newton, a slave trader among other things before his encounter with Jesus Christ, captured this in his well-known hymn, “Amazing Grace.”

 

I’ve read hundreds of books over my lifetime, but none compares with the Bible. Its scope, depth, wisdom and truth surpass anything the mind of man has ever conceived. Just to sample it, giving it an honest taste, is enough to want to make it a part of your daily “diet.” As the psalmist wrote in the longest of the Psalms, “How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103).

The idea of “tasting” God is more than a metaphor. Jesus Christ referred to it as a reality, an invitation to dine with Him in ways no kitchen or restaurant could boast. Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst” (John 6:35). He also said, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). If you haven’t tried Him, don’t wait another day.

Contemplating . . . Bread

Today a comic-strip cartoon got me thinking about a kind of crumby topic: Bread. In the cartoon, “Frank & Ernest,” one of the characters, looking at a tray of gingerbread men, declares, “I see bread people!” – a wry reference to the famous line, “I see dead people,” from the suspense thriller, “The Sixth Sense.”

I don’t see bread people – or dead people, for that matter. But it occurred to me that of all the foods we eat on a regular basis, bread is probably one of the most underappreciated. We take it for granted. It’s there with almost every meal, in one form or another, but when someone asks, “What’s for dinner?” we never hear anyone saying, “Bread.” It’s not the main attraction for any meal, but we expect bread to be there, whether we’re eating at home or in a restaurant. It’s a staple for dining.

It's so important that when I was a kid, we had a bread truck come into our neighborhood every week, delivering bread door to door.

Think about it: Without bread, the lunchmeat on our sandwich would make for very greasy fingers. Can you imagine how messy a meatball sub would be without the bread? And what would a typical American breakfast be without toast? When you need a quick snack, you could do far worse than a peanut butter sandwich (with or without jelly).

In my view, bread should definitely be ranked in the upper crust of food groups. In terms of nutritional value, it’s definitely a cut above many of the things we like to eat. Even when we want to loaf around, bread is always there for us. If I wanted to start a bakery, I think a cool name would be Dough, Ray & Me. No matter how you slice it, bread has real pun-tential, don’t you think? It definitely appeals to my rye sense of humor.

But joking aside, I’ve always found it interesting that Jesus Christ used bread as a metaphor for describing Himself. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever,” He declared in John 6:51.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus chose this comparison? Why didn’t He opt for steak, potatoes, or even cake? My own experience has shown that He does in my life spiritually what bread does for me physically – satisfies my hunger, sustains me during times of need, and strengthens me for the day’s challenges.

At the same time, the Bible takes a different slant on the analogy when it states, “man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3), a statement Jesus affirmed in Luke 4:4.

Just as bread nourishes us, but usually serves to complement a more varied meal, we can’t look to physical resources alone for a fulfilling and contented life. The Lord offers Himself to meet our deepest spiritual needs as nothing else can.

Jesus utilized the bread metaphor one other way just days before His crucifixion. In Mark 14:22 it says He “took the bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take it; this is my body.’” The disciples didn’t understand it at the time, but Jesus was demonstrating His own body would have to be broken so their sinful lives could be made whole.

So the next time you sit down to eat and reach for the bread, remember the importance of also reaching for the Bread of Life.