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

After living in Malawi, Africa for over a decade I have learned how important it is to sort locally purchased rice, nuts, split peas and dried beans. The last time I decided to make lentil soup I was short on time and, much to my chagrin, did not sort the lentils. At supper there were periodic teeth crunching sounds from all of us biting down into stones and foreign debris. The soup tasted good but we all hesitated taking another helping dreading how many crunchy bites might remain in the pot—especially toward the bottom.
 
Months later I decided to make lentil soup again. I sorted one cup’s worth of lentils and found 3 small stones. I kept a keen eye. After sorting several cups’ worth, I found: 9 small stones, 4 grains of wild rice, 3 barley grains, a half dozen fragments of pods and tree debris, a handful of split peas and red lentils and one dead bug (I froze the bag prior for that purpose). I checked the label. Yes, I had purchased “masoor, whole” which should mean whole lentils. I thought it was too bad the company didn’t sort their product more carefully before packaging. Then I had the crazy thought, “What if the company purposely threw handfuls of worthless debris into a pure batch of lentils to bulk up the package and make more money!”  I guess living through some tough economic times and a frequently devaluating currency conjures up some wild notions. Most likely the local sorting is just subpar.
 
The idea of contaminating a pure batch of something, however, isn’t new or crazy. I thought, “We’re a world of living lentils.” What should have remained a pure batch became contaminated when the first people sinned. The devil temped Eve with the enticing thought of knowing good and evil... and he threw in the first stone! How clever—because who would really ever want to know evil? Throw in another stone when they began to blame-shift and toss an additional pebble in the pot when they lie. The debris kept coming and the world has since become a very contaminated place.
 
Usually when something is contaminated the decision needs to be made whether it is worth the effort to save it and decontaminate it. In the case of the fallen world… God stepped in. His promise to send the Savior was the best news ever! If it weren’t for following through to send His Son to be our saving grace…each one of our contaminated selves would be tossed into hellfire. We know well the sweet truth of that Salvation. Sometimes, however, we don’t see sin as clearly as we should and are content to live with the grit that has contaminated our lives. Each offending issue needs to be recognized and culled out of our lives. Even so, we will be sadly surrounded by debris until the end. Our daily hope is knowing that Jesus has personally made sure our slate is clean of debris. He has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west. For His sake we can live each day knowing we are pure in His sight…Psalm 34:8 says “Taste and see the Lord is good.” For that we are immensely blessed and need to daily give Him thanks!
 
The verse continues: “…blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” When we trust God’s plans for our life He will use us, bless us and be a sacred sanctuary for our souls even as we live in the debris and rubble day by day. We may be part of God’s plan to lead how He might call us or simply support those who are leading us. As women, we may feel pressure to embrace the society-placed “label of freedom” on anything we want to do. God has been careful to construct a good plan for church, society and households. It is a necessary reminder to respect the God-appointed leaders whom we follow whether we always agree with them or not. God uses each of us to build his kingdom and be living lentils in a world of debris to tell others that indeed, “The Lord is good.”