Skip to main content

Graze a bit

It was Oscar Wilde who reminded us, "I have the simplest tastes...I am always satisfied with the best." How about you? Are your 'tastes' simple? Are you always striving to be satisfied by pursuing the best? What is the 'best' anyway? Most will say it is the thing with the highest quality or standing - something that makes it stand out as the most desirable or advantageous for us to have or pursue. With that in mind, what is the thing you are pursuing so intensely right now? Does it measure up to be the 'highest quality' or most 'advantageous' for your life? If not, it might be time to alter your 'tastes' a bit.

He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in him, whose thoughts turn often to the Lord. Trust in the Lord always, for in the Lord Jehovah is your everlasting strength. (Isaiah 26:3-4) 

Do you know what a 'taste' really is? It is the ability or willingness to relish, take a liking to, or show partiality toward something or someone. Each of us has particular 'tastes' we lean toward in the realms of music, decor, dress, and even living arrangements. Some prefer a small space with little clutter, while others require a larger space with ample things to fill it. While these 'tastes' set us apart from each other, there is one 'taste' we all need to cultivate as it may not come naturally to us. This is the 'taste' for right-living (righteousness).

The screensaver that came up today as I fired up my laptop was that of a lush green pasture, a heart of pearly white sheep grazing lazily amongst the tall grass. The sky is blue and fluffy white clouds dot the skyline against the rolling hills. This reminded me of how precious our peace is and just how easily it can be disturbed when we don't take time to develop our 'taste' for right-living as we should. These sheep haven't a worry in the world - they are at peace grazing and enjoying the fair weather. Could those clouds bring less enjoyable weather? Yes, they could, but they aren't worried about what is to come because they are completely enjoying what they have right now.

We oftentimes develop a 'taste' for something we 'don't have' or 'don't think we can have'. God wants us to remember to 'taste' and 'see' his goodness right here and now. Experience his perfect peace right where we are - not worrying about what may be just over the horizon. When we begin to 'taste' the peace of God, it changes all we 'taste' around us. We begin to experience grace right there - allowing the moment we are in to begin to teach us, bring forth faith from within us, and develop stability in our inner man. Right-living is most frequently 'learned' once we have had a 'taste' of the goodness therein. Just sayin!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What did obedience cost Mary and Joseph?

As we have looked at the birth of Christ, we have considered the fact he was born of a virgin, with an earthly father so willing to honor God with his life that he married a woman who was already pregnant.  In that day and time, a very taboo thing.  We also saw how the mother of Christ was chosen by God and given the dramatic news that she would carry the Son of God.  Imagine her awe, but also see her tremendous amount of fear as she would have received this announcement, knowing all she knew about the time in which she lived about how a woman out of wedlock showing up pregnant would be treated.  We also explored the lowly birth of Jesus in a stable of sorts, surrounded by animals, visited by shepherds, and then honored by magi from afar.  The announcement of his birth was by angels - start to finish.  Mary heard from an angel (a messenger from God), while Joseph was set at ease by a messenger from God on another occasion - assuring him the thing he was about to do in marrying Mary wa

A brilliant display indeed

Love from the center of who you are ; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply ; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. (Romans 12:9-12) Integrity and Intensity don't seem to fit together all that well, but they are uniquely interwoven traits which actually complement each other. "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it." God asks for us to have some intensity (fervor) in how we love (from the center of who we are), but he also expects us to have integrity in our love as he asks us to be real in our love (don't fake it). They are indeed integral to each other. At first, we may only think of integrity as honesty - some adherence to a moral code within. I believe there is a little more to integrity than meets the eye. In the most literal sense,

Do me a favor

If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. (Philippians 2:1-4) Has God's love made ANY difference in your life? What is that difference? Most of us will likely say that our lives were changed for the good, while others will say there was a dramatic change. Some left behind lifestyles marked by all manner of outward sin - like drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution, or even thievery. There are many that will admit the things they left behind were just a bit subtler - what we can call inward sin - things like jealousy,