Taste and See That the Lord is Good

7/6/22 Glenda Simpkins Hoffman

Many may not be aware, but the Lilly Clergy Renewal Program gave me a sabbatical grant for the summer of 2021. In early 2020, I had written a proposal with the theme of “celebration.” Because my mother would turn 90, my oldest child would graduate high school, and my husband and I would celebrate milestone birthdays and as well as our 30th wedding anniversary, and I would celebrate 25 years of pastoral ministry. That’s a lot of goodness to celebrate! 

We had proposed a number of trips to celebrate, including a trip to England and Scotland as a family. We were also going to travel to California to show our boys where I began my ministry and where Stuart and I met in Berkeley, and then on to Reno to celebrate my Mom’s birthday with our extended family. I was able to go alone for the Reno trip, but the rest of the traveling did not happen. Though I was on pastoral leave last summer, traveling was still restricted due to the pandemic and family health issues made it impossible for us to do so anyway.  

So, this summer we are celebrating in different ways. We recently completed a staycation as a family. Every day we did fun things as a family like visiting the Bible and Spy Museums, miniature golfing, bowling, watching movies, and attending a concert at Wolf Trap and a musical and play at the Kennedy Center. In addition, we enjoyed food from different restaurants every day. Though it wasn’t what we had first planned, it was just the right thing for our family at this time. We had a wonderful time together doing lots of fun things, but we were also able to enjoy the comfort of being at home. 

I asked my children what they enjoyed most about the week, thinking I knew what they would say. I was right. “The food.” I wasn’t offended that they were tired of their mom’s home cooking. I knew they simply delighted in something different to choose from each day. 

Then I asked how they thought I would answer that question. “Connecting, being together, relationships.” They were right. I guess we know each other well. We had fun and made some great memories, but it was having time together and enjoying each other’s company that really mattered. (And the fact that we ate some great food and I didn’t have to cook was definitely a bonus for me. J) 

As I was reflecting on and giving God thanks for our family time together, it occurred to me that this is what God values too. He loves us deeply, and he longs to enjoy times of fellowship with us. He longs to spend time with us. He enjoys our company, and he wants us to enjoy his. Of course, God is always with us. But just as unhurried time with family or a good friend is something to be relished, the same is true in our friendship with God. 

Most mornings I get up and spend time with God in reading the word, reflecting on and giving thanks for the day before and how I saw God at work, and pray. This is something I used to do because I thought it was good for me, much like I learned that eating vegetables and fruit is good for me. Now I like the taste of vegetables and fruit and like eating them because I feel better when I do.  

The same is true of spending time with God. I enjoy my time with God. I experience him giving me wisdom, truth, guidance, and encouragement as I spend time listening to his voice in scripture and talking with him in prayer. I am strengthened for my real life in the good times and in the bad. God uses this time to change me so that I can become the kind of person who is able to obey his command to love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength and my neighbor as myself.  

The words from Psalm 34:8-10 come to mind:  “O taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in him.  O fear the Lord, you his holy ones, for those who fear him have no want. The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.” 

We have to eat to be sustained for our life in God. But tasting is a means of savoring and enjoying food. God wants us to experience his love, his goodness. When we fear the Lord or live in awe of who he is and what he is done for us, we have an overriding sense of being blessed, of being happy.  

Food and fellowship not only matter on family vacations but it matters to God all the time. He created us for himself so we could enjoy an eternal, abundant life and relationship with him. The Westminster Catechism says that our “chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” We enjoy him by getting to know him, seeking him, and spending intentional time with him. But it’s also about paying attention to our real, everyday lives so that we recognize his presence with us in all the relationships, circumstances, and moments of our lives. That is how we “taste and see” or experience his goodness and his love. 

The last few years have not gone as I or any of our family expected in many ways, having to deal with a worldwide pandemic along with various family health and other challenges and changes. But I have “tasted and seen that the Lord is good” even in the midst of it all.  

I have seen the Holy Spirit helping and strengthening and transforming me and my family. I could never had imagined walking through such a season without an awareness of God’s presence. I have felt enfolded in his love and grace and power. I have been buoyed by the prayers of so many. It hasn’t been easy, and because I am human and not perfect, I have had my moments of anxiety and sadness. But mostly, I have experienced joy and deep gratitude. I’m aware of God’s goodness. That is not because of me but because his grace is truly sufficient. 

At the 9:00 service this past Sunday, we sang the song “The Goodness of God,” which I was introduced to as a part of the spring Great Banquet team. It really has become a theme song for this season of my life. I recommend you listen here to CeCe Winans’ version of the song, but some of the words are below:  

“And all my life You have been faithful. And all my life You have been so, so good. With every breath that I am able, I will sing of the goodness of God.… ’Cause Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me (Repeat). With my life laid down, I’m surrendered now. I give you everything, ’cause Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me.”  

Psalm 23 is a wonderful song of trust and surrender. It ends, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (v. 6). It is the picture of God’s goodness running after us all our lives long.  

I’m grateful for this time and the clergy renewal grant given to me and my family for rest, renewal, and celebration. It’s a gift of God’s grace, to be sure. But the real gift is God himself who is always with us. Every moment of our lives, God’s goodness is running after us. We can glorify and enjoy him forever beginning right here, right now as we choose to “taste and see that the Lord is good.”