Tasteless Faith

My favorite local restaurant meal lately is a Caesar salad, topped with a bourbon sauce grilled salmon filet. Since the pandemic, I have sometimes ordered this delicious meal as a “carry out,” to enjoy at home. It never disappoints!

After 3 years of avoiding Covid, I finally got hit with it! Feeling better after 6 days, I craved that Caesar salad. I hadn’t had much of an appetite, and I think my body was telling me that I needed some healthy fish! I asked my husband to please order that for me, and he got his favorite for himself: BBQ ribs.

I had noticed the day before that perhaps my senses of taste and smell were fading. This morning, my cup of coffee didn’t seem to have much flavor. But, I drank it anyway, as was my habit. And now I wanted that salad!

The first bite was bland. But, I was trying to talk myself out of the reality that my tastebuds were not working the way they used to! Second, third bites, still bland. I ate the fish and salad anyway, because I knew my body needed the nourishment. Hopefully the taste will return soon, and I will savor the meal with more gusto the next time.

Oh, LORD! What a lesson you have given me! Isn’t my faith life tasteless at times? Yet, don’t I still pray, because my heart longs for You? I don’t always “feel” or “taste” the flavor of your love the same way as before, but I know You are who I need. I pray that my daily habit of speaking with You only increases my love for You, and so, tasting or not, here I am.

Your lessons, reflected even in the sickness of some days, can teach us if we but open our senses.

“Learn to savor how good the LORD is.” – Psalm 34:9