Just try one bite...

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him! (Psalm 34:8)

Taste and see?! 

Normally, I try to “see” and then “taste”.  Seems normal to me; to want to see your food before tasting your food. There have been very few times in my life that I have not wanted to know what something looks like before I eat or taste it.  In fact, I work hard to use my senses to tell me if something is worthy of tasting.  My nose and eyes help me discern the trustability of eating what is before me. 

Even touch can play a role.  Yes, touch.  When my son Eli was younger I knew he liked to trust touch as a way of discernment, especially with food.  With his index figure he would poke straight down at his food and ask, “What is it?”  This is an effective means of discernment.  Yes, see and then taste is something I am very comfortable with.  It seems like a foreign idea to work the other way around.  Why would anyone want to taste first then “see”?

Now listen I tend to be an adventurous person; not one of those sticks in the mud.  There have been plenty of times, going out on a limb as they say, I have set aside my senses of sight and smell to taste something new.  There are plenty of times I have suggested, quiet strongly I might add, that others do the same.  This does not change the fact that this is a foreign concept for me and others.  We need some proverbial grease to get the wheels turning on these ventures of putting taste before seeing.  We need encouragement.  I don’t want to say coercion.  However, tasting something new (when it does not look how we thought it would) can be difficult.  Only the skilled can get people to come out of their comfort zone to taste first and then see.  

Try it if you haven’t yet; just try to get a friend or family member to taste something then see what it looks like. Ask them, “Can I blindfold you and put something in your mouth?” The reaction probably will be a strong “NO!” 

Or if you have children, this might be a nightly battle for you.  Come on Sally (or, insert child’s name here) try your vegan squash, Brussel sprouts, and parsnip ratatouille.  No, we mostly opt to go the other way.  We lie.  We place the good nutritious stuff into something they like so that when they “see” and won’t know exactly what they are tasting.  This works until they get wise.   Listen, I am not just rambling here.  We are a people that like to see then taste. 

This passage asks for something different.    

For the Psalmist “tasting” is the action and “seeing” is the result.  One is active and one becomes tied intricately to the other.  It is only the bold person that can blindly taste in an effort to see what something has in store for them.  In fact, this passage suggests that it might be better for us to taste first; then to base our assessment on that action of tasting.  It suggests that there might be something good that comes out of trusting that something will be good.  Trust is and always will be a key investment in seeing what is good. 

Trust is not easy.  Evidence before us might suggest that what we see, what we perceive, what we understand is not good.  One problem might be that these assessments, perceptions, and understandings are only based on what we have known in the past.  It leaves no room for the extraordinarily new.  When our minds quickly race to search for evidence we discount the possibility of something new. 

Of course this process requires us to enter into new territory.  To be brave.  To open ourselves up to something new and something different. Maybe to trust the encouragement of  someone else.  For how could we possibly see something good if we haven’t tasted it first? 

The truth is that this passage asks, begs us even, to enter into a relationship of trust—actively tasting in order to see what good God can give.  It means we must be adventurous. 

Are you willing to taste what life and God has put before you?  Willing not to just poke at it, or stare it down?  Willing to smell its’ funkiness hoping for a sweet smell; knowing it probably will smell a little off but trusting that God will provide something good?

Whatever you taste it will be good because it will be full of new possibilities.  With new possibilities comes new hope.  Hope is the stable of our Christian lives.  It is not blind, it is based on trust.  It is not silly, it is based on trust.  So come with me in your personal life, and in the life of the church, to actively taste first and then see the goodness that God has in store for you and our church at Windsor UMC.

-        Pastor Jon

Nota Bene: Some of the best foods I have ever tried required me to taste first to see something different.