Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Psalm 34:8a NLT
I’m gonna do it. I am going to tattle on my husband’s side of the family—they are picky eaters. When I say that they are picky eaters, I mean they are extremely picky eaters! They are good sports; they don’t fuss when I make something that to my mind is pretty safe but to them is adventurous and not altogether pleasing. Nonetheless, the fact remains that they simply don’t love many different foods, especially if these foods have spice or too many combined flavors. Just because they are good sports doesn’t mean that I’m a good sport. Oh no! I usually tease them and “lovingly” give them a hard time, but just the other day I was thinking about how one of my now-favorite foods was not too long ago, one of the very few foods that I just couldn’t stand.
I am not a picky eater. At all. I haven’t been in a situation where I have been tested to eat anything as daring as insects but I was the child, and my mother will confirm this, that was taking smoked oysters and beets in their lunch to daycare as a toddler. However, there were a few foods that I simply had not been able to muster a taste for—among these were pineapple.
I had tried pineapple a few times throughout the years and just didn’t like it. It didn’t make sense—I like other fruits and tart foods but every time I tried pineapple, I just didn’t like it. It was the rehearsal dinner, the day before our wedding, there was pineapple as part of the dessert. I looked at it and couldn’t remember the last time I had tried pineapple so I went for it. Still didn’t like it. The next day was our wedding and it was such a busy, fun day! Someone put a bag of fruit together for us before we left the reception. I was munching on the fruit on the way home when I tasted a piece of fruit that I couldn’t quite place. It was dark so I couldn’t see what I was eating and my new husband did not like the light on in the car, so I just kept munching away. We stopped to get gas and I turned on the light to look at what this fruit was that I was really liking but couldn’t place—pineapple! Ever since that day I have been a pineapple lover.
I had tried pineapple the night before and hadn’t liked it, but in all reality it was my preconceived notions about pineapple that prevented me from liking it. Given the opportunity to try it blindly, I really liked it! That’s the problem with preconceived notions though—we can’t just give them up! I wanted to like pineapple. The night before I tried the pineapple and found that I still didn’t like it. We have preconceived notions that affect our spiritual life too.
So many times we approach trusting in God as a scary thing and for sure it can be! We don’t know what He will ask us to do, where He may send us, or what He may ultimately require of us. So we hold back. What do we miss out on by holding onto these preconceived ideas? I am the worst offender of looking at what could be the worst possible outcome of things (I’m a realist not a pessimist!), but we rob ourselves of so much joy and do a disservice to God every time we hold out on wholeheartedly trusting Him because we fear what may happen if we do. We don’t stop to think about how much could go right and what joy we could find in communion with Him if only we would stop trying to be in control and instead release those fears. As Jesus said in Matthew 7:11, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him! “ (NIV)
Maybe it’s time to stop trying to grab the reins and instead hand them over to Him. Maybe, just like with me and the pineapple, we will find that we actually like the communion that comes with totally trusting Him.