It was a simple post, typed in response to a verse she had stumbled upon. It was just 5 words long yet it seemed to utter a yearning and torment that troubled my heart immensely.

The verse was Psalm 9:10

And those who know your name

put their trust in you,

for you, O Lord,

have not forsaken those who seek you.

Her simple plea was this: “How do I know him?” If you met her on the street, what would you tell her ?

Her question wasn’t unusual or off the wall. My Wednesday evening class of 4th-6thgraders asked the same thing the evening I challenged them to “Know Him.” When our life is in a flux it is natural for the desperate and yearning heart to raise its broken body and weary head to the heavens in response to the voice that says “Know me” to cry out “but how?”

The week following my challenge to “know Him”, I purchased a dessert that looked something like this. I carried it into class and placed it in the center of a table surrounded by drooling 4th, 5th, & 6thgraders. None of them had ever seen anything like it, and it took a few threats and promises to stop a free-for-all from breaking out in the middle of the table. I asked the class to take turns answering a simple question, “What does this taste like?”

Not one of them replied “I don’t know, I have never eaten one.” Instead, I was bombarded by a barrage of very descriptive and comical suggestions. After everyone had been given a chance to voice their opinion I asked them what they thought of the dessert if I told them the red thing in the middle was a dog’s ball dipped in lacquer? “What if, the black fingers were shoe strings dipped in tar, the yello leaf was a painted bug wing, the red stuff congealed blood, and the inside actually mud mixed with an entire box of laxatives?” There was a momentary lull of silence and then chaos erupted. Some exclaimed they would still gobble the dessert down but most made grotesque faces and sounds demonstrating just how disgusted they were by my suggestion.

Sadly the faith, knowledge, and experience many “Christians” confess mirror the faith, knowledge and experience my class possessed of the dessert I had placed before them. Opinions and hopes, some right and others wrong, but no substantial experience to back up their desire laden opinions. I told my class they would never “know” how the dessert tasted or what it’s various parts were made of until they actually tasted it. It might taste just as they had described or quite possibly even better than they could have imagined. Then again it could have been all tar, mud, and yuckiness.

 Psalm 34:8

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.”

Christianity is not a spectator sport.

The die hard fan on the sideline, with body painted the colors of their favorite team, who brave six degree temps wearing nothing but a barrel and gaudy mask, will never receive a championship ring. Only the athletes who have made the sacrafices, and devoted their life and passion to the game have a chance to win the prize.

 To truly “Know” Christ, you have to savor him, taste Him, and experience first hand that He is who he has proclaimed himself to be. If I could find that women who asked “How do I know him?” the first thing I would tell her is you “know him” by experiencing Him and witnessing firsthand the liberating Truth of His word in your life. And here is how……….

To be continued Friday..

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