Taste and See!

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” Psalm 34:8 (ESV)

Think about what you do when you eat something incredible. It’s the best thing you’ve ever tried. Do you just walk away and think, “Well, that’s was good”? Of course not! Everything else you put in your mouth will be filtered through that one amazing food experience. Nothing will quite satisfy like that delectable food did.

I think this image of tasting in Psalm 34 helps us practically see how knowing God should impact our lives. When we truly taste how good the Lord is, nothing else satisfies in the same way. But what may be the problem for many of us is that we haven’t truly tasted of God. We’ve taken a couple nibbles from God’s table, but by and large feast from the table of the world. Because if we really tasted God, we wouldn’t be so easily satisfied.

So often we content ourselves with enjoying the temporary pleasures of the world—investing time, money, and energy into things that will burn up. We know the pop culture references, the fashion trends, the latest movies, the popular songs. It’s easy to be consumed by things that have no eternal value.

Which leads me to ask, am I pursuing things that increase my love for God? Or are other lesser things filling up my appetite?

I had an opportunity to serve in a year internship at a residential facility for women (Vision of Hope). Vision of Hope has residents go through a season without access to the conveniences of media, phones, and TV, which is very difficult in our technology-dependent age! One of the reasons they do this is to increase delight for God. Because for each one of us, many things demand our attention and can become a distraction, or sometimes even turn us away from God. When we set those distractions aside, it helps us better taste and see God’s goodness.

I’ve heard residents say that taking a break from those things helped them realize how much time they wasted on social media, or how their media choices didn’t increase their delight for God, but instead catered to their sinful desires. It’s a beautiful thing to see God begin to change their desires as they taste His goodness. In fact, it’s contagious, because as they see how beautiful God is, it makes others desire that same thing!

Think about it. If you taste something amazing, do you walk away without saying a word? No. You tell people…and you tell them they need to eat it too! In fact, you probably won’t be content until they just taste it. That’s how restaurants gain popularity. When people love something, they can’t stop talking about it.

That’s the kind of tasting of the Lord that should fill our lives. It should not only deeply impact our lives, but those around us. May we not be content to nibble at God’s table, but may we taste and see that He is good, and may that lead us to share that delight with others!

Originally posted on the Vision of Hope blog.

Tune My Heart

There are so many beautiful correlations to the Christian life. So much imagery that helps us see our need for God. Like the line in Come Thou Fount:

“Tune my heart to sing Thy grace”

I’m a musician, so I understand the challenge of an un-tuned instrument. It sounds awful, even in its attempt to create beautiful music. And if two instruments playing together are not in tune, they will clash terribly.

Sadly, it captures the state of my heart so frequently. We will never be free from the sinfulness in our hearts on this earth. My heart is prone to wander. My heart gets distracted by the temporary and neglects the eternal. I need my heart tuned frequently. Daily.

David captures this in the prayer of Psalm 139:23-24:

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! (ESV)

Because of the remaining sin in my heart, my heart needs daily tuning so that I can be in sync with the Father. I don’t want to be playing my own music solo. I want to be in tune with Him. This tuning comes from sitting before God with His Word open, ready to listen and obey. Asking Him to search our hearts and reveal what is true, open our eyes, and help us respond in repentance and obedience as He brings things to the light.

Tune my heart, Lord Jesus, to sing Thy grace.

Originally posted on the Vision of Hope blog.

The Long Road of Perseverance

When I opened my Bible this morning, a notecard with a definition fell out. It read….

Perseverance: the quality that allows someone to continue trying to do something even though it is difficult. This is a word a couple friends picked to describe me as they sought to encourage me. Honestly, it’s the last word I would’ve chosen. I don’t feel like I persevere very well, and often it’s the last thing I want to do when things are continually difficult.

When the reality of our broken world slams us and the sinfulness of our own hearts is vividly on display, how do we persevere? Hebrews 12:1-3 is a familiar passage, but perhaps one that will provide some encouragement and insight.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” (ESV)

A few things strike me about this passage....

1. We don’t choose the race—it is set before us. 
   This is hard to swallow because we like to be in control. The secular idea that you "create your destiny" certainly sounds more appealing. But God, in His love, orchestrates circumstances we would not pick for ourselves in order to make us more like Him. Sometimes we'd rather have an easy road than a sanctifying one. I know I would! Thankfully, God is incredibly patient with us. For those He calls His children, He is committed to making us like Him. And that happens through the struggles and difficulties of the race of life.


2. We will fail. 
   This might not sound encouraging, but hear me out. As a redeemed sinner, living in a sin-cursed world, you will sin. You will struggle. This is why Hebrews tells us to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which clings so closely.” Instead of looking back and letting past sin weigh you down, look up to Jesus. He provides cleansing and forgiveness when we fail. We are clothed in His righteousness, not our own. So don’t despair when you fail, but let your weakness push you to greater dependence on Christ. He doesn't condemn His children for their failures, but delights when we recognize our need and turn to Him.


3. The only way to persevere is to look to Jesus. 
   As long as our eyes on our circumstances, things will seem dim and we will be prone to despair. We will wonder how we can persevere for the long-haul. According to Hebrews 12, how did Jesus persevere and endure the betrayal of friends, the mocking of the crowd, the agony of the cross, and separation from His Father? By considering the joy ahead—the joy of being at the right hand of God. Similarly, only when we look to Jesus and our future hope can we continue when things are unbearably hard.

The Christian journey is not one of ease. That is not promised to us. But we are promised that Jesus, the One who went through the worst suffering for our redemption, will be with us in our suffering.

So look to Him when the burdens of life overwhelm you. It doesn't make the hardships go away, but there is comfort found in knowing that Jesus is with you in the fire, and that one day, all that sorrow and difficulty will result in endless joy.

Fall Reminders

Fall is my favorite season.

The crisp air, the color on the trees, the warmth of hot drinks, the delightful aroma of pumpkin bread baking, the smell of cinnamon sticks or mulling cider. All of these bring wonderful memories as well as exciting ideas—despite spending a majority of my life in states that weren’t warm enough to have a true fall, or any seasons really. ;)

But there’s another thing fall reminds me of: change.

You see, even though the leaves turn vibrant colors, they quickly fall off the trees and die. The season of life and color ends. That's the part of fall I don't like so much.

Some seasons of our lives feel like an incredibly long fall, but more in the dead leaves, bleak skies, and freezing-cold sense. We wonder when the excitement of life will come back. We question what God could be up to. How could He redeem such miserable days? 

I don’t like seasons in life that are dry or difficult. But God, in His gentle care, sometimes leaves us in those hard seasons for reasons we don’t often understand. However, He always means for it to turn us to Him. And in those moments of despair and weakness, He shows us His comfort and strength in ways we never recognized while things were easy.

The picture of death found in fall is not the most pleasant, but a necessary one. Without death, there would be no beautiful new life when the trees blossom in the spring. And in the same vein, without dying to self, there is no spiritual life. That spiritual death and growth is frequently accomplished through the seasons and circumstances we hate the most. Tim Keller says,

"Believers understand many doctrinal truths in the mind, but those truths seldom make the journey down into the heart except through disappointment, failure, and loss." (Walking with God through Pain and Suffering) 

It is through those hard circumstances and seasons that God works most deeply. He gently purifies the ugly parts of our hearts and teaches us to love Him most of all. He solidifies in our hearts the truths we formerly only knew in our heads. And perhaps what's even more amazing, He walks through the difficulty with us. He never leaves us in the darkness alone, despite how it may feel like He has abandoned you.

So let the changes of life seasons drive you to the One who never changes, the One who will never fail you, and the One who is using the death you now feel to bring abundant life.