Savor the flavors

By the end of August many folks are winding up summer travel, while others are already back to school. I sometimes think about the visual where the motion of a person jumping is broken into fifty or more images. The person leaps off the ground forward, but then fifty additional images leap in succession. The first image lands, and then one-by-one the others arrive. Several solitaire card games in a line move piles or decks of cards the same way. The motion from August to September reminds me of that image. We are wrapping up summer activities, vacations, relaxation, and fun events while at the same time beginning to plan for the fall, sports, school, work increase, and so on. Rather than being two separate changes overlap abound. Perhaps that can be a blessing—especially if we savor the flavors.

When I was in High School we teens would go to the local Big Boy Hamburger hangout in Glendale, California, and we would order soft drinks in a variety of combinations. I especially remember Cherry Cokes. I could taste the Coke, but I could also enjoy the flavor of cherry at the same time. For me it is a picture not only of faith-filled living, but also of life. God’s presence and grace are definite flavors that alter life. Knowing our loved by God, praying, worship, studying, sharing with others, serving together to help our world are a way of life that mark our thoughts, our days, our choices, our relationships, and our responses to life. The flavor of God’s presence and grace is to be a part of everything we do. Yet at the same time we participate in school, work, family, sports, shopping, mowing the lawn and other motions of life itself.

The “coke” and the “cherry” are two distinct flavors—our faith and our participation in the motion of this world. Yet they are flavors we experience and live at the same time, each affecting the “flavor” of the other. Hope alters our response to politics; caring for the world alters how we use our money; loving and forgiving others alters our relationships. At the same time our choices and relationships give expression to and alter our faith, our prayers, what we hear when we read scripture, songs we sing. We do best when we intentionally savor the flavor of both.

As we transition from August to September, there is wisdom in savoring the flavor of both months. By that I mean we can hopefully take the fun, the relaxation, the appreciation of nature and friends, the ability to laugh, and time we spent with friends into the intense activity of the fall. Likewise, we intentionally allow the opportunities and demands of the fall schedule to pull us forward into action and creating new goals and adventures.

With that in mind I present to you a challenge -- to do alone or include others in conversation while compiling ideas.

• 1) What joys of the summer months do you want to intentionally include in your September way of living? How will you do that?

  
  

• 2) What opportunities and commitments of the fall provide the structure that pulls you forward? Toward what? For example, what would you like to get out of returning to structured study opportunities? Out of returning to participation in choirs or sports teams or regular times with friends?

  
  

• 3) What “flavors” of faith do you especially enjoy? What “flavors” make life richer for you?

  
  

• 4) How will you intentionally make those flavors a part of your daily or weekly activities?

  
  

• 5) Where do you think life in family, group, community, nation, or even your worship group has become a bit “tasteless” or even “off-putting”?

  
  

• 6) What “flavors” need to be added, just as I added cherry to my coke, and what difference would it make?

You might even want to write a recipe for savoring flavors of faith and life more intentionally this fall. Or you might want to put a sign on the refrigerator reminding you to savor the flavors. Or draw a picture of spice bottles, label the bottle with flavors you want to add to your life, and write a brief prayer to post where you will see it. Or...well, I leave it to you to decide how you can more intentionally savor the flavors of God’s grace as part of your daily life.

Pastor Diane Wheatley, Prince of Peace, Fulton, NY, Retired