As we wrap up the final episode of our Unnaturally Nourished season, we’re taking a look at the importance of honing our spiritual taste buds to healthier flavors and avoiding the pitfalls of the novelty we often relentlessly pursue. Be sure to let us know which episodes resonated with you the most in a comment or review!
QUESTIONS WE TOUCH ON IN THIS EPISODE:
- What does it mean to be spiritually nourished?
- What is Spiritual Anemia?
- What is Holy Sexuality?
- How can I raise children who understand Biblical Sexuality?
VERSES FROM TASTE AND SEE
Psalms 34, Numbers 13 Psalms 1:19, Ephesians 1:18, Acts 26:18.
QUOTES FROM TASTE AND SEE
“God is sovereign. We forget that because we see something that is interesting and different and we want it.”
Michelle Watson, The Pantry Podcast, Taste and See, S04E010
“We don’t need to look like the rest of the world. Not in this day and age, we need to look like Christ. We need to have that love. We need to go out there and speak truth. We need to be bold. We need to never step down away from what God has taught us. And the word of the word of God has to be that that is a good taste. And that is what’s going to get us through our day.”
Shea Watson, The Pantry Podcast, Taste and See, S04E010
Shea: Hey, I’m Shea.
Michelle: And I’m Michelle. And this is The Pantry Podcast and you’re listening to an episode from Season Four, Unnaturally Nourished, where we’re talking about how God nourishes us in ways that the world just can’t understand.
Shea: Shout-out to Warcry Network,
Michelle: The Christian Podcasters Association,
Shea: Eternity Ready Radio,
Michelle: And the Spark Collective. Check out ThePantryPodcast.com to support us by buying our awesome Merch, sending in prayer requests, and figuring out how you can connect with us and some of our awesome guests.
Shea: Hey!
Michelle: Hello! Well, guess who is excited tonight. Probably still you. Oh yeah, but I am too! I know. This is the end of the season
Shea: What season?
Michelle: Season four. Naturally nourished.
Shea: What season? Spring? Fall. Winter. It’s been rough. Y’all 2021. But it’s been fruitful.
Michelle: Oh yeah. I was about to say, I feel like it’s been the longest winter ever, but it’s been fruitful winter fruit. What fruit still happens in the winter? Is there a winter melon? I said, hi first, which is cool. So this episode is called taste and see. Yeah, I like it. Yeah. We figured that this would be a very fitting way to end the season. We don’t yet know why it’s a fitting end because you know, we’re just starting the episode, but it’s going to be a fitting end for a season.
Shea: Where we’re talking about God, just providing in confounding, miraculous ways, fitting in, fitting in with the heavens the kingdom. Yeah. Right. That’s the only place you need to fit in. Y’all just, you know, a little PSA, you know, the young crowd, old crowd, Hey, whatever crowd only need to fit into the divine. And that is the entire point.
Michelle: So tonight’s episode is based off a verse out of Psalms 34. And I’m going to just kick us off by reading a few verses like Shea normally does to set the tone and get us rolling here.
Michelle: So in Psalms 34, verse eight, it says taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the, of those who take refuge in him, fear the Lord, you, his godly people for those who fear him will have all, they need even strong young lions sometimes go hungry. But those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing. And when we were talking about how we were going to do this episode, one of the things that came to my, you know, taste this whole season has been probably the closest aligned with the name of our podcast ever. Cause we’ve been using a lot of food, eating hungry analogies, you know, but taste, yeah. It’s, it’s the kind of foods you like, but also people, you know, you’ve got some really good tastes. You got some really bad taste and it’s completely subjective by the world’s standards.
Michelle: And then also you look at our little girl who is learning to expand her palate, right. But it’s about what we feed her. And that shapes her taste buds that shapes her interest in eating certain foods and thinking others aren’t that great. You know, whether it’s because, you know, we didn’t present it to her enough because it looks funny, whatever, whatever the reason science or whatever you want to give this idea, that taste is directly impacting the quality of nutrition that we have. So that’s kind of where we’re kicking it off today is this idea that it’s important for us to taste and see the right things so that we can understand the goodness of God and experience that spiritual nutrition that we’re always talking about and not fall in love with the taste of the world instead.
Shea: Yeah. I always think of that. Like out of all that verse, right. It’s like fear the Lord. I remember when I first came back or to the church. Right. And you hear those words, like fear the Lord. And you’re like, like at the beginning, you kind of, you don’t quite understand that reverence. You don’t quite understand the, the beauty behind that, the beauty of looking up and just really having this, this all and inspiring reverence and just love. And just like, like, I like this taste. I like how this feels, you know, and you build into this. It’s amazing how you build into that feeling, how it’s like, it’s like raining down, you know, it’s like all of a sudden manna and the Bible sounds good
Michelle: Honey cakes, come on.
Shea: I like, I remember like stories like manna. It’s just like, you know, it’s like, yo, I got like, T-bone I got like, man, I was, I was as bad as the Israelites. I want to go back to Egypt. I want to go back to slavery because I wanted to taste, you know, that stuff that’s in the world, you know? And I was thinking of just these, this idea of tasting and y’all should I let you throw me under the bus? Throw me under the bus.
Michelle: So today, literally today y’all we were like, what are we going to have for lunch? Arby’s so we went to Arby’s and we ordered some food and we came home, we all enjoyed eating it. And I had gotten Calia, some yummy Mac and cheese and we got her just a normal Arby’s sandwich. Shea got a, like a half pounder Arby’s roast beef with cheese. and I got it without cheese come home and we’re eating it and all of sudden the mac and cheesies disappear. Now she did eat a lot of them y’all but they all were gone. And I made a comment like where are all of your mac cheesies and Shea is like I don’t know, where are they? And I like, well, you ate them.
Shea: Hold on. I repented. I won’t go back to the repentance at the table.
Michelle: Look, look, it’s less about him eating her mac and cheese.
Shea: Well, hold up, hold up. See, this is, they get to see us who we are.
Michelle: Am I allowed to finish throwing you under the bus? Anyway, four hours later, he’s like man lunch aint sitting right with me. And I’m like, well, first of all, you can’t have dairy and you ate her Mac cheesies and you ordered a cheese roast beef sandwich. And he’s like, I know, I know, I know this is probably going to be on the podcast. It is going to be on the podcast. You’re right. Because, I mean, okay, this is a food analogy, so it’s not perfect because somebody’s going to be like, oh, I’m not allergic to dairy. Okay. Yes. But Shea knows. There’s certain things she should not have. His body does not react well with certain things. And yet he will still order them when given the option. See, I did not have cheese on my roast beef, but he chose it with a roast beef. At least he didn’t take my milkshake.
Shea: No. Cause it was mint.
Michelle: And so we need mint mac and cheese and mint pizza.
Shea: So people will ask like, Hey y’all we want to have you over for dinner. And it’s like, okay, cool. Yeah. “Any allergies” I shoot out real quick. I’m like, nah.
Michelle: Cause I’m like, and I instantly look at him and I’m like, y’all please avoid at the very least seafood and nuts at the very least, because otherwise we’re going to roll up with, there’s going to be apple pie for dessert. He’s allergic to apples. There’s going to be like some kind of delicious lasagna. He shouldn’t have cheese with some nuts, like cashew sauce and on top of some shrimp and he’s just going to eat it all and not say a word. And I’m like, but we didn’t have to
Shea: Last night we were at the dinner table and mama, mom, Michelle’s mom. Anyways. We’re talking about birthday cakes. I’m like Michelle made this cake for Calia last year, like anti sugar, whatever it was. It was the worst cake ever.
Michelle: Oh, it was the worst cake ever. It was a Keto cake with one of those sugar substitutes. Cause I was trying to keep her from having it. I was all in this health cake for her and I’m like, I should have just got that poor child a cake.
Shea: So my comment was my birthday’s coming. I’m like, yeah, you can’t make none of them cakes. You can’t. But see that’s what we’re talking about. Back on topic, right. Tastes and see, you know, the world looks really good. I mean, you can look at how the Israelites did this. It was like, they’re coming out of the desert and the Canaanites though, there, they were going through a era of like trading and stuff. Wasn’t going on. The epicenters, the cities, people were moving out to the countrysides, stuff like that. You know, you’re transitioning from the late bronze age into the iron age. And so there’s all of these things not to mention in Mumbers. 13, right? Yeah. Numbers 13 where the spies go in and they save these big grapes and all these awesome things.
Shea: And you know, Israel just had this problem. They kept falling for the wrong God. And when you start looking at that, when you start looking at like, the gods that were like bells and these other gods that were there, right. These were all fertility, land fertility, you know, birthing fertility and all of these things that just look good, you know, you’re going from the, the one agent to the iron age where it’s like iron and swords and you know, all of good things, all of these enticing things. Yeah. Because milk, dairy cheese, I’m just telling you and I’m not supposed to have it. See, they weren’t supposed to have that either. Right. They had God, they had someone who had them going through the desert and yet, nah, that tastes pretty good there. I look at it coming out, look, coming out of the desert off of manna and see some big old, what
Michelle: I imagine manna like the little honey cakes, like this sounds good. But I also imagine it like baklava and I can only have so much baklava. And so I understand I feel for them, you know.
Shea: So it’s it’s but it’s like that. I mean, and we look at the world sometimes like, Ooh, I want to take some of that. I want some of that. But forget about how good God tastes. That message that love that risk. You know, how he just pours out onto us Psalms 1:19. How sweet are your words to my taste sweeter than honey to my mouth. I mean, these are big words, right? And what does this do? It enlightens us, right? It brings us to this an enlightenment and understanding how we can survive in the world, how he can get through the world. Yeah. I would be so much better off right now sitting in this chair, talking on this microphone. If I didn’t eat the Mac cheesy, you know, no, it says sweeter than I need, you know, sweeter than honey. Right. And you know, you think of this and in Ephesians 1:18, you know, we, we think of this, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. What are the riches, riches, riches, riches. I’m not on repeat y’all riches of his glory, his inheritance in the saints, man, that tastes good. You know why? Because it’s pure. And it doesn’t cause allergies,
Michelle: Right? I mean, God is sovereign. We forget that because we see something that is interesting and different and we want it. Like, I think of our daughter, like when she sees me doing so she could be completely content and thrilled with a toy she’s played with a dozen or more times. If she sees me pull out something that funny enough I could think is one of the most mundane, normal tasks, but it’s the first time she’s seen me do it. She will drop that thing that has like blessed her life many times. And she will become completely engulfed in what I’m doing. And I see that in adults, it’s like something new comes along, some new social network, some new Netflix show, some new restaurant that has a long waiting list. You know what else? Like, there’s something about us and FOMO, like the fear missing out on all that stuff.
Michelle: Like we, we just want to try it. And there’s, there’s something. When I was thinking of this episode, it made me think the very first sin of mankind involved taste both on a physical and a spiritual level because the first temptation was pretty much taste and see, you know, taste and see what God knows, right. Taste this fruit. And you will know. I think that there’s something to that. There’s something to all of the food analogies and actual navigations around food in the Bible, because taste is a very powerful thing. Funny enough, it is the sense that I would give up. If I had to give up one of my five senses, I would give up taste. And this is why, because my rationale is I would eat healthier than ever before in my life because I wouldn’t care about tastes. I would just find the healthiest food and I would consume it because I wouldn’t have to care about, Oh, does it taste bad?
Michelle: Does it not taste bad? I could still smell wonderful things. See beautiful things, listened to beautiful things, but I could eat healthy, which tells you my taste buds dictate what I consume more than they should in the same way that our emotions dictate our actions more than they should. Our taste buds can too. So we need to understand it in two ways, we have to make sure that we are constantly readjusting and praying to the Lord to help us adjust our spiritual taste buds so that we start to understand the sweetness. You know, like you, you cut out a lot of sugar and suddenly the things that were just right before now, way too sweet. Same with salt. You have to readjust so that you’re experiencing the word in an untainted way so that you begin to appreciate it. And then on top of that, we need to stop ourselves from being so curious about the next big tasty morsel in the world, because what does the world like to do in the Bible?
Michelle: Talks about honey, honey, honey, why it was one of the sweetest things they could access because they could not refined sugar to the level. We have it. We have this pure unadulterated sugar sweetness at our fingertips. At all times, we’ve gotten high fructose corn syrup. We’ve got like this insane level and it’s caused us to spiritually and physically be off. We’re not calibrated. The world is full of things that are super unadulterated, intense and more intense and more intense. And so we’re like, Oh, you know, the word of God it’s stays the same, but the world’s always changing. And it’s like, well, actually that’s not a good thing.
Shea: Hey, I think, I think that that’s probably a big, bigger thing of that, but you know, I give that to God too. And well, I mean, if I know that I’m having issues, eat the food I can have. Right, right. If you know that the world is going to give you issues, eat the food. That’s good for you. I think that we have a problem with that. You know, it’s like we, we turn away from what’s good.
Shea: And I’m not saying that all of us out there y’all, I mean, you know, you might, Hey, look, call me, text me, pray for me if you don’t have these issues, because I need somebody on my side is late getting my guidance back on track. But no, but the world it’s like, it’s like, we go, we end up doing things in the world that help us. Not one bit in our spiritual life. I have seen it. I’ve experienced it. I’ve heard about it. And I mean, I’ve only been in for seven years. I can’t imagine someone who’s been in this life for like 20 something years. And you’re hearing it from, from people that you know, are around you or, or, you know, across the internet or whatever, but there’s struggles. And sometimes when we look at this, you know, when we, when we look at counseling and talking and life coaching and stuff like that, it really, you start to see a pattern.
Shea: It’s like, we turn back to these things that might seem sweet in the moment, but have no impact like, like God on your spiritual necessity. And I’m just thrown by that. I mean, even in my day to day, cause I always throw myself. I tell you all the time, man, I look into that, the mirror and I think this whole, this whole thought today taste and see, you know, she’s on the taste side. I’m over here on the see side. And it’s like, no, I just want my eyes to be opened. I want my eyes to be open. Right? I want my eyes to be hold the wonders. Things that are out of the law. You know, this, this, this God, our God forget this God, our God, the God, the God, the one and only God, Jesus Christ and the Holy spirit.
Shea: I love those three names. I love the power of those three names. You know, they’re the names that made Paul see on the road when he’s on the back of his horse and he gets knocked off right Acts 26:18, it says to open their eyes so that they can turn from darkness. That was his whole purpose. The whole purpose of knocking them off the horse, he thought he was right. He thought he was right. He thought he was right to persecute Christians. He thought he was right. That, that was the best tasting thing ever until he found Jesus. And when he found Jesus and he, and he recognized Jesus for who he was, he became an impact for the kingdom. And I think we need to do that. We don’t need to look like the rest of the world. Not in this day and age, we need to look like Christ. We need to have that love. We need to go out there and speak truth. We need to be bold. We need to never step down away from what God has taught us. And the word of the word of God has to be that that is a good taste. And that is what’s going to get us through our day.
Michelle: Yes. What you just said, it reinforces, this thought that the story of the prodigal son, a lot of people are focused on the fact, Oh man, he lived, he went out, he left, he left. His daddy lived that crazy life and praise God, he came back. And so can we, and you know what, that’s a beautiful part of the story. But you know what, what I saw when I was reading it this time through the father, agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. And a few days later, the younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land. And there he wasted all his money in wild living, tasting and seeing all the wrong things, right about the time his money ran out a great famine, swept over the land. And he began to starve. How convenient then when you lose the resources to taste and see all the wrong things, you realize you’re starving.
Michelle: Right? Right. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him. And the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods, he was feeding, the pigs looked good to him, but no one gave him anything. Sometimes we want to taste and see to refine our palette, to understand, you know, and, and experience and taste it all. And at the end of it, it’s like, it all means nothing. And you realize you’re just, all you’ve got left is just trash. All you have left to eat is the refuse of others. It’s not, it’s not for you. And it never was. And there was always some you left what was good out of this, this desire to taste something else. And it was only then, and that’s the case for so many of us only then sometimes that we re wake up and we see what was there from the beginning for us, that we didn’t have to strive for.
Michelle: We didn’t have to pay for, we didn’t have to fall to get it. But for many of us, we do fall before we realize what we had. And then the end, praise God, his dad takes him back. Right. But I’m hoping as we close out this season, that all of the conversations that we’ve had with you and with our guests has made you really start to understand that even when his food seems repetitive to you, may I suggest it’s because you still haven’t learned the lesson there. And it’s not because his whole entire word is just one thing. And that if you just submit and dive in after him, you’ll see all the flavors that come from Christ, all the variation, all the surprise, all the excitement that comes from Christ that you might not see when you’re still romanticized and swooning over the world. We would love for you to share with us what your favorite episode was. You know what, like we would love that if you would drop a comment for this episode or drop a review, in regards your favorite episode, and we’re going to be coming back next week, we’re going to come back nice and strong with our sequel season unnaturally flourished, where we talk about taking this idea further God, flourishes, elevates, and relocates us in ways that the world can’t understand. Right.
Shea: Right. And I think we should leave him with a verse that wraps the whole season, John 1:2. And this is our prayer for y’all beloved. I pray that all may go well with you. And that you may be in good health as it goes well with your soul. Be nourished. Amen. Amen.
Michelle: Awesome. Remember that in a few days, we’re doing our first zoom chat. So remember to go to the pantry podcast.com/zoom to get all of the details. So until next season.
KEYWORDS: GOD, SPIRITUAL FOOD, SPIRITUAL NECESSITY, THE WORLD, FAVOR, ETERNITY, SUSTAINED, PODCASTS FOR WOMEN, PODCASTS FOR FAITH, PODCASTS FOR CHRISTIANS, CHRISTIAN PODCASTS TO FOLLOW.