Happy Trails

"Taste and see that the LORD is good. How happy is the man who takes refuge in Him!" (Psalm 34:8, HCSB)

A few weeks ago, my brother and I took our families on a hike through woods near our homes in northeast Florida. The day was overcast, but no rain was expected. We had our wives and all of our children (seven between both families). The trail zigzagged through oak and pine trees, palmetto bushes and ferns. It was a wonderful trail.

However, in places, the trail was wet. I don't mean damp like a little squishy rather than hard-packed. I mean inches of standing water spanning from one side of the trail to the other. It soon became apparent that to continue, we would get wet, muddy, dirty. This would not be a clean hike.

Interestingly, the sloshing and mudslinging simultaneously thrilled and discouraged my kids. Some of then relished the opportunity to pounce in big puddles, run through muddy spots, or leap over pools of water. Others complained of muddy tennis shoes or begged to return to the safe, dry van we had left in the parking lot. 

We pressed on and something remarkable happened. The happiness of the happy mud splashers caught on. Soon, we were all having fun, squishy socks and all. 

Now, the trail did not get any drier. It remained fairly muddy in places. What changed was our collective perspective. We pressed on, and enjoyed our circumstances for what they were, an opportunity to play! 

For many of us, 2021 probably feels like a muddy trail. We thought, "New Year, Better Year." But, thus far each new bend has just presented us with one obstacle after another. How can we push through when everything is so hard? 

David sang, "Taste and see that the LORD is good. How happy is the man who takes refuge in Him!" (Psalm 34:8, HCSB). The title on this Psalm informs us that David wrote it reflecting on how God rescued him from the Philistines. This was a particularly troublesome time in David's life. Hunted by Saul, David fled to enemy territory in Philistia. Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire! David even brought with him Goliath's sword! To escape imprisonment and death, David pretended to be insane. The king publicly declared that he did not need more crazy people living close to him and let David go. David knew God had rescued him.

So, David's invitation to "taste and see that the LORD is good" is quite a provocative statement. It's a dare to step out into dangerous territory and find that God is better than we imagined! It's a call for the courageous to advance and find that our Commander is better than the enemy by a long shot. To taste is to risk for the LORD while trusting in the LORD, contemplating the LORD, and giving glory to the LORD. David calls us to really live by abiding in God and we will find something amazing - happiness in God even through the most difficult and bizarre situations.

Imagine night after night David surviving as Saul hunted him. From cave to forest to the open stars, David survived. Each day he got a deeper taste of the goodness of God. He learned to see obstacles as a new opportunity to trust and to find the power and goodness of the LORD more than sufficient. He could testify, "Young lions lack food and go hungry, but those who seek the LORD will not lack any good thing," (Psalm 34:10). 

How liberating it is to believe that enough to act. So here's the invitation this year, run straight into the mud. Get your shoes and socks soaked. It may even hurt dearly at times, but trust the Lord, and through the difficulty you will taste and see that the LORD is indeed good.

Please do not misunderstand this as an invitation to disobey God or to act foolishly. Use wisdom and always pursue holiness. But, this is an invitation to trust that obeying God, even when His path looks like a mud bog, is always the best path and the happiest path. You will find that the LORD is good.

For some of us who are seeking to follow CDC guidelines to promote health safety (which I would encourage you to do wholeheartedly), we have at the same time become hyper risk averse for the Kingdom. I am not encouraging you to take off your mask, disobey the mandates, or lick the pavement. What I am challenging is the baseline no-risk mentality. Choose the right risk and then step out in faith and find that God is bigger than you knew. This may mean you mask up and meet a friend in a park and have an intentional conversation about Jesus. This may mean that you purchase extra groceries, make a big meal, and drop it off on a friend's porch with a letter explaining how much God loves them. This may mean you purchase some stationary and write long, meaningful letters to family speaking with them about eternity and the return of Christ. This may mean you reorient your schedule (or lack thereof) to spend ample time praying, reading Scripture, and then obeying God's Word and the Spirit's prompting that same day. Run straight into the mud and you'll find out God is still amazing.