Have you ever tried something called “scRamen”? Maybe it’s something only familiar to the palate of college males. My husband used to eat it in those years of low budget food: scrambled eggs mixed with Ramen noodles. Maybe you have partaken in a feast of “Spam”. A book I am currently reading in the era of WWII set in Tennessee refers to this invention and talks about young housewives’ dependence on it when their cooking skills were rather underdeveloped early on in their marriages.

These foods are not ones you could order at one of the fancy restaurants in your town or on your next vacation; it’s certainly not a gourmet option. In fact, you probably can’t get much further away from the idea of gourmet. Quick, easy, inexpensive, and probably not overly high in nutrition, I would presume. And yet it fills your belly. It keeps the hunger rumblings to a minimum.

Tish Harrison Warren refers to some of us being content with “Ramen noodle spirituality” (69). What a great analogy! I think about how often I settle for an experience that meets the bare minimum. As with our metaphor, it’s “FOOD”. And I am content with “QUIET TIME WITH GOD”. But do these vague categorizations even deserve the capital letters? Aren’t they just a shallow version of what we could be experiencing? The process of opening up my mouth and chewing what goes into it and swallowing it can be taken to a whole different level if I am able to savor the delicate flavorings and spices seasoning in my filet mignon or cherish the subtle savory fruit pieces stirred into my cheesecake.

The same goes for my interactions with God: if I am to deeply dive into a Scripture passage and use the study notes that go along with it or to deepen my relationship with a non-believing friend who asks me to pray with her, what an enriched experience I am going to have beyond just the shallow experiences of checking something off in a day.

Eat something.
Do something spiritual.

If we water down our experiences in life like that, we are merely going through the motions and not truly experiencing the intense pleasure to the tongue of a well-crafted sandwich or making our mind glow with the joy of the knowledge gleaned from an eloquent and meaningful sermon… or saturated with the peace of the soaring melody and comforting lyrics of a hymn… or experiencing that awareness of the beauty of God’s creation and His everlasting faithfulness that a Psalm can inspire within our soul.

Take the time and focus to savor your spiritual life, to be intentional about it, and to invest your heart into your worship. Keep your eyes open and your heart ready for what God has prepared for you in experiencing Him in any number of ways today! Then you’ll be choosing the gourmet option of spiritual life and finding much more blessing soaking into your life and day that way!

Deuteronomy 10:21 “He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes.”

Savoring

Routine