Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
Psalm 34:8"The whole testimony of the Bible is that God is goodness itself… The vague tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions. It hushes their fears and allows them to practice all kinds of iniquity while reason has been stilled and conscience stifled. But the goodness of God is the drive behind all the blessings He daily bestows upon us. God created us because He felt a goodness in creating, and He has redeemed us for the same reason."
-- A.W. Tozer, *The Knowledge of the Holy*
"The idea of tasting is not that we sample God and render a verdict, but that we are drawn into what we taste -- that we become what we receive. The goodness of God is not an abstract quality we inspect from a distance; it is an experience that changes the one who experiences it. Whoever merely stands and looks at the goodness of God does not taste. To taste is to be taken up into the goodness itself, and one who has truly tasted is never the same."
-- Søren Kierkegaard
"Confess his goodness in the past, his goodness now at this present time, and his unfailing goodness for the future. If you are a lost sheep, he has not lost you -- you have wandered from the fold, but he has followed you into the thicket. If you are a prodigal son, he runs to meet you while you are still a long way off, and the robe and the ring and the feast are already prepared. This is the God we worship -- not a tyrant who demands, but a Father who gives. Taste him, and you will find that he has already been tasting your sorrows long before you turned toward home."
-- Gregory Nazianzus, *Oration 40: On Holy Baptism*
"The humility of acknowledging one's own weakness is the only soil in which the seed of true virtue can grow. You will never make progress in the interior life unless you learn to distrust yourself and place your whole confidence in God. Be not disturbed when you fall into faults you thought you had conquered. This is permitted so that you may learn to know yourself as you truly are, and so that you may cease to rely on your own strength. The one who has never fallen does not know how weak he is; the one who has fallen and risen does know, and from that knowledge grows a humility that is sweet to God and durable in the soul."
-- Thomas à Kempis, *The Imitation of Christ*
What would change if you stopped evaluating God's goodness and started tasting it?
"How many have found that a friend is not to be trusted? The best course is to put up with what you cannot set right, and, without complaining, to smooth away the difficulties that have caused your indignation. It is better to cure the wrong than to nurse it. What is the use of getting angry? The wound anger opens is wider than the injury that caused it. There is more pain in the punishment than in the fault itself. You will find it more useful to forgive an injury than to avenge it; forgiveness is the mark of a great soul."
-- Seneca, *On Anger*, Book III
St. Clair, Michigan: -- Sunny, 50°F, Humidity 51%, Wind SW 9 mph