Sometimes the Bible describes heaven as a wedding banquet. The party, the dancing, the food, the celebration-this all has been offered to us through Jesus Christ. And according to John 17:3 where Jesus declares that eternal life is simply knowing God, we can draw the conclusion that for Christians that wedding banquet has already started. The table is set. The feast is prepared before us. All we have to do is choose to partake in this great celebration, in this heavenly meal.
During staff training at Lake Ann, our boss always reminds us of this one thing: You can invite people to eat, you can set the table, put on the fancy tablecloth, light some candles, put on some mood music, make the table as appealing as possible, but you can never force someone to eat. The relevance to us was let's make the Gospel look as appealing as possible but we're never going to force someone to accept it because that's not true transformation. And while that was stated as an almost obvious fact in my brain, there was another layer of understanding that until this summer was completely left out of this metaphor until one day when I had a very fateful talk with a camper, in which I walked away learning more and being challenged more than I think she was.
It was Thursday afternoon and I sat down with one of my campers on the grass for a little life chat. This camper had intrigued me all week with the amount of wisdom she kept sharing with our cabin and even just how evidently real it was that Jesus was her friend. But the thing that made this even more intriguing was that she hadn't been a Christian for very long. If I recall right, she had only known Christ as her Savior for 8 months. Eight short months and it had seemed she already knew God in a way that most of the people growing up in church have yet to achieve. So I had to know what was different. So I asked the question that usually gets to the bottom of everything, "What's your story?" She shared much with me but to summarize it in four words: the struggle was real. If there was a God, her life did not look like He loved her. But more than likely He didn't exist. He couldn't. Not the way life was going. Through a series of events she ended up at a church, and to make a long story short she was confronted with this invitation: "Taste and see that the Lord is good." (Psalm 34:8). The challenge: God invites us to come, taste and see that He is good. He invites us to just try it out. If after giving Christianity the kind of all-in try that it necessitates, we don't see that the Lord is good, we're allowed to walk away. What could there possibly be to lose?
So this camper tried it. She committed to living for some period of time as if everything in the Bible were true, as if Jesus were as real as you and me, and as if God loved her and wanted to be an integral part of her life. After a few weeks although her circumstances had not made some drastic change for the better, she had indeed tasted and seen that the Lord is good! Externally life might not have changed, but internally this Jesus fellow was changing everything! She had hope, joy, peace, and knew a love of which she had only heard of before. And just like tasting a fine food that after a bite becomes your new favorite, she was now hooked.
This "taste and see" invitation is the very first invitation that the Lord gives us in our walk with Him. It is not the one that requires of us to "go make disciples", to "pick up our cross and follow him", to "live a life worthy of the calling you've received", but first and foremost to "taste and see that the Lord is good". Because all of these other things are responses of experiencing the goodness of God. Until I know that God has my best interests at heart, He loves me and is a good Father, the idea of committing to His commands is sheer ridiculousness. But once I've seen that He is good, I desire to commit all my ways to Him like a small child who wants at all costs to please their loving parent.
This realization changed everything about how I shared the Gospel this summer and about how I thought of combating unbelief. In my natural state, I'm all about logic. I want to out-think those around me, wow them with facts, and beat their unbelief in some sort of logical game. Instead of curing from the inside-out, I like to put band-aids of knowledge on the wounds of unbelief. As if with enough facts, reasons, and cunning arguments I can win the world to a faith in Christ. But as I sat in the trenches dealing with the unbelief in many of my girls this summer, I was reminded of the cry to "taste and see that the Lord is good". I often ended those conversations with statements along these lines, "Look I can try to persuade you of God's reality with facts, verses, and all kinds of information, but apart from God moving they're useless. So instead take up God's invitation to taste and see that He is good, give Christianity a whole-hearted try holding nothing back from God for the next month and if God hasn't shown you that He is good during that time then walk away. In the meantime, I'll be praying that God reveals to you that He is in fact present and good." Because there really is nothing we as Christians can say that will convince anyone of God's existence on its own. It is only when God shows up and moves that His reality is confirmed in the lives of those in the world.
I just want to emphasize again the importance of this all-in approach to the try. We haven't really tasted food until we've committed to putting it in our mouth. Likewise, although on rare circumstance God may just show up, God wants that commitment to go all in before He shows us He is good. His promise "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13). If that's the promise than there will never be a time when we truly taste and find that God's not good. He's always desiring to be found by us, and when we find Him, it's impossible to miss His goodness.
So for my Christian and non-Christian alike: Maybe you have yet to taste and see that God is good. I would encourage you to try this all in living, fully committing yourself to live as if this God and Bible thing were the real deal for the next month. If at the end of this "ALL-IN" approach to Christianity, you have yet to see that God is good, then walk away. What have you got to lose? After all, you'll either see that God is good and be blessed in that or see that God is not good once and for all and be able to walk away. Seems like trying it is the only way you'll really discover either way.
For my Christian friends that have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, I leave you with two calls. First remember that we are not to try to force people into following Jesus but our invitation is to "taste and see that the Lord is good", then trust that the Lord is completely capable to show His goodness to those around Him. After the invitation to "taste and see", our job becomes one of prayer not of trying to force people into Jesus. The second invitation is from Jesus's homie Peter: "Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good." (1st Peter 2:2-3). Peter calls us to "grow up in our salvation" after. So if you know God is good, don't stay spiritual babies but grow up into that!
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