1 Peter 4:1-6
So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin. You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols. Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you. But remember that they will have to face God, who stands ready to judge everyone, both the living and the dead. That is why the Good News was preached to those who are now dead—so although they were destined to die like all people, they now live forever with God in the Spirit.
When I was a child
there was one thing that was never going to enter my mouth (and for those of
you who know me well, this is many years before my first experience with the
much-despised okra! Having been raised
in the NorthEast, I was an adult, having ventured into the foreign country of
Augusta, Georgia before being introducted into the I hate okra Hall of Fame); no, my childhood arch-enemy was asparagus…oh, man, the battles between my stubbornness and Dad’s
requests that I at least try it.
Somewhere between
pre-school days and the birth of our first child, asparagus was strangely removed
from the CDC warnings of dangerously toxic things to ingest. Actually, I am pretty sure I recall being at
a friend’s house and the dreaded green spears were disguised, covered with
cheese sauce; I ate the stuff by mistake!
I once had another friend tell me he was certain I’d eat a live roach if
it was covered in any kind of cheese. Despite
green worm-like veggies under the good stuff, it was good!
But, I digress; in some
unknown twist of the astrological forces of nature, my taste buds had
changed. For some unknowable,
unexplainable, but entirely enjoyable reason, asparagus drenched in melted
cheese tasted like desert! Who knew?
The final chapter on
okra is yet to be written, but I suspect it will drop below freezing in Hades
for an extended period of time before you see me reach for the little gooey
pods; I do not like veggies you eat with a straw. In fact, it’s written in my last will and
testament that if I die suddenly there is to be an autopsy to rule out that it
wasn’t some foul play by someone high on okra.
So, on a 1-10 scale of things I love/hate, it’s asparagus 9.2 and okra…
minus1,000.
And, so, what does any
of this have to do with Peter’s taste buds?
The big fisherman had discovered something about placing his faith in
Jesus Christ. His taste for the former life
had changed. The things he had hated
before, accountability to God, serving, instead of being served, giving instead
of getting, and a whole list of other okra torture, had become desert. And it didn’t even irk him – not a single bit
– that his former friends didn’t understand, and had unfriended him like a hot
potato Facebook troll. Peter’s taste
buds had developed a hunger and thirst for righteousness and living the
abundant, changed life in Christ.
Now, if you’ve become a
follower of Jesus, and that miraculous change of taste buds doesn’t describe
your experience, let me tell you…from where I sit…that doesn’t usually happen
in a flash. Sometimes the development of
taste buds changing from lust to respect, drunkenness to standing up straight
and not throwing up all over yourself the next morning, or insisting on having
everything your way or whining about all the stuff your neighbor’s got that you
don’t….well that is a reconstruction project that’s bigger in some than
others. It was in me, and I suspect
you’re not a whole lot different.
Let’s Pray
Father, we’re glad the reconstruction project is underway. We’d rather have it go into effect yesterday, so we don’t have so much struggle. But, we remember the surrendered life is not complete without surrendering to Your will, which is like Your ways, higher, and your thoughts, more complete than ours. Help us to hang-in with Your plan for our taste buds.
For You Today
Remember the old song?
He’s still workin’ on
me, t’ make me what I need to be;
it took him just a
week to make the moon and stars,
the sun and the earth,
and Jupiter, and Mars.
How loving and patient He must be; ‘cause He’s
still workin’ on me.
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