If you’ve ever watched Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network you know how each episode begins… “Hey everybody, I’m Guy Fieri and we are rolling out looking for America’s greatest diners, drive-ins and dives.”

And if you are familiar with that show, you also know that it begins with Fieri in his red ’67 Camaro convertible as he travels across North America visiting small independent restaurants. If you are not hungry when the show begins, you surely are by the time it ends thirty minutes later.      

Maybe you are not a “Triple D” fan, but instead, you are a big fan of grandma’s home cooked chicken and dumplings. You might be strictly a meat and potatoes person and you don’t venture too far from your tried and tested classics. Instead, maybe you enjoy experimenting in the kitchen, trying out new recipes and ingredients. Or after a long and exhausting day at work or school you regularly dine on take-out meals, or better yet, you ask “do you deliver?” Often on New Year’s Eve we like to put together a spread of some of our favorite finger foods. (The picture in this post is from one such New Year’s Eve, when our daughters visited us in North Carolina.)

We all have different “tastes” when it comes to what we like to eat, and regardless of your food preferences, eating is a big part of life. The Bible uses a number of “taste” references in describing God’s goodness. Let’s look at one of those verses.   

“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” Psalm 34:8

You might be familiar with that passage of scripture, or at least the first half of it. Without getting bogged down in too much detail, I want to unpack the verse. The Hebrew word used here for “taste” is Ta’am, which means to perceive, to evaluate, or the testing of what is good by the means of our sense of taste. The word “good” is defining God as kind, merciful, gracious. The word “blessed” simply means happy, and the word “refuge,” to trust in and to put hope in.

So what does all this mean? When you order a meal at a fine restaurant it often comes out beautifully presented. But you can only know if it is truly tastes good by actually eating it and tasting its goodness. What this verse says to you today is give God a chance, try Him out, and put all your trust in Him. And in return, God promises to be merciful, kind, and gracious. He promises to be good. 

To keep v.8 in context we must also look at verses 9 and 10. Psalm 34:9 begins like this – “Fear the Lord, you his holy people.” Fear here is a healthy fear, not a fear that comes from being terrified. It is a fear that comes out of respect and reverence of God, and not wanting to offend Him. The reminder of v.9 and all of v.10 answers the “why” question – “For those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.”

So, today, taste and see that the Lord is good! And you can always go back for seconds!

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Are you someone who enjoys standing around with friends singing popular songs into a microphone over pre-recorded music? We call this type of entertainment “karaoke.” Year after year, a favorite karaoke song is one written by Paul Anka and popularized by Frank Sinatra. You know the song, titled My Way, and the words, “I did it my way.” According to karaoke experts (there really is such a thing), the most popular karaoke song is Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline.

There is something to be said about charting your own course through life rather than simply following in someone’s footsteps. In fact, Robert Frost wrote a well known poem titled The Road Not Taken which begins with the words “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both” and ends with this –

“I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages hence and hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

But “my way” or the “one less traveled” is not what God desires of us when we submit to Him. The Bible is full of people who did it their way, beginning in the Garden of Eden. Chapter 27 of Genesis might just be the most disobedience filled chapter in the entire Bible. It narrates the “My way” actions of one very dysfunctional family.  

But if we truly love God and we trust that His ways are better than our ways, then we will desire to live out that love and trust in our actions. Obedience to God is defined as submitting our ways, our wills, to Him. As you can guess, the Bible is also full of references to “God’s Way.” Abram, showed no hesitation when God instructed him to “go from your country” in Genesis Chapter 12. Joshua was told to march around Jericho for seven days and then the city would be destroyed (Joshua Chap. 6). And of course, Jesus is our ultimate example of obedience, even when it was painful. In the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:39-46) He cried out to God, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

After a long night of fishing and pulling their nets up empty, Jesus asked master fisherman Peter to go back out and try again. It is likely that Peter wasn’t too happy with that request, but here is his response to Jesus, found in Luke 5:5 – “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”  

Now i just hope God never asks this of me, as He did of Isaiah – “In the year that the commander came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him and he fought against Ashdod and captured it, at that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, ‘Go and loosen the sackcloth from your hips and take your shoes off your feet.’ And he did so, going naked and barefoot.” (Isaiah Chap. 20; the text goes on to tell us that Isaiah walked around naked and barefoot for three years.)

The first verse of the hymn Have Thine Own Way written by Adelaide Addison Pollard and Dana Mengel so beautifully narrates the very essence of obedience. It goes like this – “Have Thine own Way Lord have Thine own way, Thou art the Potter I am the clay, Mold me and make me after Thy will, While I am waiting yielded and still.”

The word karaoke comes from two Japanese words: “kara” which means empty and “oke” which means orchestra. Doing life your own way often does leave you feeling empty. Jesus, in the opening words of the Lord’s Prayer says this, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

So, today I encourage you to fully submit your will to Jesus and leave “I did it my way” to what you sing when you gather with friends around the Karaoke Machine.

Have you ever thought about what your legacy will be? After all the kind words said at your funeral, what will it be weeks, months, even years later that people say about you? How will history remember you? Before you discount those questions, let me just say, every one of us will leave a legacy, maybe not on a national or worldwide scale, but to those who know us, we will leave some sort of legacy.

The game of college football today looks nothing like it did back in 1869 when the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) Tigers and Rutgers Queensmen played the first intercollegiate game. You do not need to be a fan of college football to know the name Knute Rockne. The Rock was a legendary football coach at Notre Dame from 1918-1930. He is considered one of the greatest college football coaches of all-time. His Fighting Irish teams won 88% of their games, and Rockne’s winning percentage is second all time, behind only Larry Kehres who coached 27 years at Mount Union (Ohio).

In 1928, Notre Dame had one of Rockne’s worst teams, finishing the season 5-4. On November 10, after a scoreless first half against an undefeated Army team, Rockne, in trying to salvage the season, made his famous “Win one for the Gipper” halftime speech. Notre Dame then rallied to upset Army that day, 12-6.

One of his star players was George Gipp, nicknamed “The Gipper.” Sadly, on December 14, 1920, three weeks after his last intercollegiate football game (ND was 9-0 that season), “The Gipper” died of complications from strep throat and pneumonia. As Gipp lay dying in the hospital, Coach Rockne visited his friend and according to Rockne, the young man said this – “I’ve got to go, Rock. It’s all right. I’m not afraid. Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, ask them to go in there with all they’ve got and win just one for the Gipper. I don’t know where I’ll be then, Rock. But I’ll know about it, and I’ll be happy.” Historians doubt Rockne’s version of Gipp’s last words are true, but it makes for a great story.

Tragically, the ever-popular Knute Rockne died in a plane crash on March 31, 1931. Rockne’s untimely death sparked a national outcry. Newspapers all across the country carried the story. His funeral was broadcast live on network radio; possibly birthing our obsession with celebrity funerals. Because of Rockne’s popularity and the outrage over his death, the crash was investigated with a thoroughness that would become the criterion by which all future aviation accidents would be investigated, triggering sweeping changes to airline safety, something anyone who flies today greatly appreciates.     

How we live life makes a difference in our lifetime and in the lifetimes of those after us. Psalm 145:4 says this – “One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts.” And in Proverbs 3:35 we find – “The wise will inherit honor, but fools get disgrace.”

While it is true that probably your death or my death will not be broadcast live or because of our death sweeping changes will be made that impact future generations, it is true that each one of you reading this post has the opportunity to touch, impact, and change the lives of those you come in contact with. And that is of no less significance than the legacy left behind by the rich and famous.

So, what will be your legacy? It is never too late to begin to create one that enriches those you love and those who come after you. 

I took this picture of Rockne’s statue outside Notre Dame’s football stadium when visiting their campus in 2012.

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We are all identified in a number of ways. Every US citizen has a social security number assigned to them. Not only is each number a unique configuration, the nine digits also help identify you even more. The first three digits are an area number, most commonly the state in which the card was issued. The next two digits are a group number; these are not related to geography but instead to the order in which the numbers are assigned in each area. And the last four digits are the serial number which are assigned chronologically within each area and each group.

Not only are you identified by your social security number, you most likely have a driver’s license with a photograph, a passport, and maybe even an id badge issued by your employer. Military personnel have a military card, formally called a United States Uniformed Services Privilege and Identification Card. In college, I had a picture id that granted me certain rights and privileges as well as a food services card which gained me access to my college’s dining halls. Times have sure changed, back then, both those id cards had my social security number printed on them. These days, with the explosion of identity theft and security breaches, identification numbers are most often encrypted on a magnetic strip on the card rather than printed on its face.  

If you are a follower of Jesus, you might be identified as such in a number of ways. First, you probably professed your faith publicly in some fashion or another. Other things that could indicate your faith in Jesus are also things like church attendance, good works, kindness, daily Bible reading, and praying regularly. However, those things are also done by people who have not committed their lives to Jesus, so they really are not fail-safe identifiers.

Jesus gives us one marker that He says will identify Christ-followers to the world. On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus was enjoying a meal and some private time with His guys The tension was a little high because had just dropped a bombshell – that one of them would soon betray him. After Judas had left the gathering, Jesus, just before giving the remaining eleven their marching orders (John chapters 14-17), offered them a “new” commandment, one that would identify them. Here is what we read in John 13:34-35 – “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

So, today, in a world so filled with hatred, division, and false identifications, I ask you – what properly identifies you?

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When you look around at nature, are you awestruck by its beauty? Do you ever wonder how and why it all works so well? To borrow from the lyrics of the song “Redeemer” by Nicole Coleman-Mullen – “Who taught the sun where to stand in the morning, Who told the ocean you can only come this far, And who showed the moon where to hide ‘til evening, Whose words alone can catch a falling star?”

We know from the first verse in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, that God created the heavens and the earth. God not only created everything in the heavens and on the earth, but today He still cares for all of His creation. This is quite contrary to much of what is man made. Have you ever tried calling the toll-free customer service hotline that comes on the packaging of the product? You usually get satisfaction, right? Sure, there are companies out there that still pride themselves in customer service and repairing or replacing broken products, but for the most part, the focus seems to be on making the product, and what happens after that, well, oftentimes you are on your own.

Psalm 104 is a beautiful narration of how God cares for and sustains all that He has made. We encourage you to read the entire psalm. Here are just two verses – “He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts” (vv.14-15).

God’s goodness is evident in the diversity of all that he has created, He still cares and sustains all that He has created, and if you hear nothing else, hear this, despite what might be going on around you, or in you, God is in control. Job 12:10 says this – “In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.” The apostle Paul, in Colossians 1:17, writes this – “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

When life breaks down, in you and around you, you can turn to God and know that He will always answer the phone, and you will never hear “Please call back between the hours of 8 AM and 6 PM EST” or “Sorry, your product is out of warranty.”

So, today, regardless of the condition of your employment status, your finances, your health, your marriage or friendships, your aging parents or your children, or the world around you, you can know without any doubt that God is big enough to create and sustain everything in the heavens and on the earth and He is caring enough to number the hairs on your head. (Matthew 10:30, Luke 12:7)

I will end with a few more lyrics from Nicole-Coleman Mullen’s song – “The very same God that spins things in orbit, Runs to the weary, the worn and the weak, And the same gentle hands that hold me when I am broken, They conquered death to bring me victory, Now I know my redeemer lives, I know my redeemer lives, Let all creation testify, Let this life within me cry I know my redeemer, He lives.”

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