July 23 – Thoughts on Psalm 33-34 & Acts 24

How often have you had a great meal with good friends or family and determined that the restaurant is five stars.  But the next time you go to that same restaurant and order the same dish but you’re having an argument with your spouse, the food is mediocre at best.  What happened?  Is it a bad day for the cook, or a different cook, or have your tastebuds changed?

‘The good taste of a meal is directly proportional to the attitude of the one eating it.”  In other words, the gladder the company at the table, the better the food tastes.  This has been proven a number of times in scientific studies, and the amount of attitude change that changes the taste of the food is surprisingly low.

“Taste and see that the Lord is good,” the Psalmist proclaims to us.  But what happens when our attitude is such that our taste is off?  What happens when our greed, or pessimism, or control issues keep us from truly tasting the goodness of God?

God’s goodness never changes.  Like a good steak, the flavor of God’s goodness is remarkable at all times.  But our ability to taste it, to recognize God’s goodness in the midst of our lives and this frightening world, can be limited.

The best way to be sure that we can recognize the work of God, taste His goodness as it were, is to live with an attitude of love, joy, peace, patience… the fruit of the Spirit in other words.  When we view reality through the lens of the Fruit of the Spirit, God’s goodness is evident and our spiritual taste buds are ready to taste all God has for us.