illumin8 - Edition 9 - March 2009
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In the last few years the obsession with organic foods has taken the western world by storm. (In some parts of the non-Western world, organic foods have never really faded away, so the revival is not so necessary there. And we think we're so advanced!) Organic foods are supposed to be more nutritious, more flavorsome and healthier. In short, they are closer to the original state that fruit and vegetables were initially created in and one that so few of the goods that make their way into our supermarkets have actually experienced! The premise behind organic foods is that the closer something is to its natural state, the better it is for you. It is humanity, with its meddling that has created oranges without a trace of vitamin C and square watermelons! When God created us, he intended for our natural state to be in close relationship with Him. Sin has, unfortunately corrupted this and as a result we are separated from God. But Jesus has injected the vitamin C back into our lives and the Spirit of God produces Fruit that no pesticide can corrupt! And yet, we often find ourselves living insipid lives. Senzo deals with this issue in his article “The Tepid Taste of a Fence Sitter� which is featured on page 6 and will hopefully inspire you to give that salt grinder a turn! The rest of this issue includes various articles on different topics. The Secret Ingredient explores how our faith spills over to encompass everyone who we encounter. Double Take ventures into those murky waters of the psychology of taste and Cooking with Papa G brings some divine intervention into the kitchen. We hope that the melting pot that is this month's issue will inspire you and help you to discover some truly organic faith in your life! Have a tantalizing month! Lucy
A few weeks ago I had one of those Saturdays which just seemed to have a never ending list of things that had to be done. I hate them because they seem to steal an entire day of my precious weekend. This particular day was different though because my flat mate had a never ending list as well and since a lot of our things were in the same area we decided to share our woes and do our things together. And so, bright and early we piled into the car and set off on “A Day to Get Things Done�.
On another note, but a related one, I recently watched the first talk in Louis Giglio's Unthinkable series, Unthinkable You. The just of it was that we are all unique and that there will never, ever be another person quite like you. I am the only me that will ever be! I have really been trying to make this knowledge real in my life because so often I feel ordinary. And so when the Flavour issue came up, this thought immediately sprang to mind.
We spent the morning running hither and yon, shopping, paying bills, and generally just exhausting ourselves. Lunch time approached with alarming speed and so we headed for Harry's Pancakes for stress decompression and food consumption! When we arrived home later I realized that not only had I managed to tick everything off my list, but that I had actually had a great time doing it. The obvious reason for this was the company of a good friend through it all!
I started thinking about how many flavours there are in the world. Just take a South African classic: boerwors. You would think it's a fairly straight forward thing to make. But combine different meats with a variety of spices and you'll get something new each time. Or think about that greatest of Italian institutions: the pizza! There are endless combinations of toppings, each producing a different end result. And that's before I even get started on desserts! Chocolate mousse, cheesecake, milk tart, ice cream! There is an endless supply of ingredients out there that we can use to create countless combinations with which to tantalize our taste buds!
Gastronomical Greats When I thought about this in the context of my friends, I realized that we are all different flavours. When we combine our own unique and individual zests the end results can be incredible friendships, much the same way I can combine eggs, sugar, flour and chocolate chips to produce chocolate chip cookie dough. And like that all time favourite, surviving trials and tribulations with our friends will produce something new and even more delightful! While the dough is delicious on its own it is transformed into something entirely new and wonderful once it's been baked at 200째C for 15 minutes! We all have those people in our lives. They are the ones who are there for us through thick and thin and they never fail to pull us out of the quagmire. They are always good for a laugh and they make the dullest activities much more exciting. In short, they bring out the best in us! They are the strawberries to our champagne! When I am in the kitchen though I tend to be a fairly conservative cook. I love to try new recipes but I am not the type to try and create my own. I am not the person who would consider combining chilli and chocolate, although I am more than willing to sample the fruits of someone else's creative flair (once its been declared successful that is!) However I have begun to question whether this traditional approach to food is common in other areas of my life. My cell group recently expanded by a number of new members and one of the ladies is not someone I felt I had particularly much in common with. However in the
last few weeks I have been consistently amazed by the wisdom this individual shares! The energy and fire that she introduces into our group just blow me away and I have had to chastise myself for once again judging to quickly. I have found such a deep appreciation for this woman and dread to think how much more bland my life would be if I didn't have her injecting her special brand of tanginess into it on a weekly basis! Curdling Combinations What happens though when two conflicting flavours get together? If you have ever put lemon juice into a glass of milk, then you will know that some things are just not meant to mix! The bible tells us that we are to love one another as Jesus has loved us (John 13:34) but this can be incredibly difficult when you come across personality that that flops with yours every time! So what are we to do? Are we supposed to like everyone as well as love them? Personally I don't think it's possible, not under our own strength anyway. What we need to remember though it that just because someone doesn't mix well with you, doesn't mean that they don't mix well with someone else. They are the chocolate to someone else's red wine and you might just be the orange in that situation! What we struggle to comprehend when we are battling it out for space in the roasting pan is that Jesus is not limited by our concept of love. I know that in my own life I experience a variety of different types and intensities of love everyday. What's more is that I have contradictory emotions that fill the space if love is not there: indifference, resentment, frustration, jealousy, even anger. Jesus on the other hand has a love that is pure. It is applied to each of us liberally and continuously. He sees the heart of who we are and there is not a single person who he curdles with! Flop Proof Perfection God could have created us all exactly the same way, like cookies cut from the same dough. Instead he chose to make each and every one of us exceptional. What's more is that His Son, Jesus is the ultimate super food and he compliments our own individual flavours perfectly. He is the not-so-secret ingredient each of us needs to complete the exquisite dish that is our time here on earth! When you think about it God could also have created one substance that contains all the necessary ingredients to sustain human life. We could have been the cookie cutter people drinking our glass of nutritious sludge every day and surviving quite satisfactorily on that! Instead He has blessed us with a multitude of different taste sensations to explore. So many, in fact, that I'm not even sure a person could work his way through them all in a lifetime! Just as we have been given all of these flavours to enjoy at each meal, so we should explore the personalities of the people we meet. Like food, God has given them to us to enrich our lives, and to show us a physical manifestation of His love. So go out into the world: mix, combine, bake, roast, sieve and experiment! As long as you have the Secret Ingredient as the main constituent you're bound to find a winning combination!
to olives, I get a little chill trying to imagine God’s reaction to those of us who are distasteful to Him.
speak to family members, what we read and watch on TV. It matters what we do with the money we earn. It matters how we behave There are many ways of looking at on Saturday night. It matters what ones flavour from the Christian view. we do with our girlfriends/boyfriends. Firstly it is as Jesus spoke of in Mat- The taste of our lives matters, so the thew 5; that we are the salt of the question is… what taste do we leave earth. In other words we, like salt are in His mouth? to bring out a good or rather a tasteful flavour from the world around us We must not conform any longer so that our Father in heaven might to the patterns of this world. We Flavour! Interesting word. I really, be glorifed. The second one is like must stand our ground and not be and I mean, really hate olives. I’m convinced they were created for one it but includes who we are and what of this world. Galatians 5:16 – 26 contrasts two types of lifestyles. purpose only, to make expensive oil we do when no one is around. They both have a flavou,r one and nothing else! Defnitely not for Psalm 50:12 says, “If I were hungry displeasing to God and the other, consumption! I have found myself I would not tell you...” If we ‘feed’ most pleasing; you must choose spitting them out at posh dinners with no feeling of embarrassment or God by our worship and lifestyle, we the one you will live. Do not, I pray sit on the fence and be lukewarm! shame. To be honest, I’d rather have must face and answer the daunting people look at me funny than endure question of whether our lifestyles are a good flavour or not to the con- It is easy to say all of this, because the taste of an olive. I guess my sumer, namely God. Or, are they it’s what the Bible teaches, however, reaction is similar to that of a baby. so distasteful that even if He was I’m at the ripe old age, where I am practicing it is much more difficult. When I taste an olive, everything hungry, He would not tell us and becoming an uncle left right and cen- comes to a standstill and the focus Be strong and vigilant; be radically even if He did bravely try the dish, tre; so much so that I’m struggling ruthless in following Christ. That is is on getting rid of the horrendously He would have to spit us out for lack only possible by the power of the to keep up with all the little ones. distasteful flavour and foraging for of flavour. Most of us live as if it What fascinates me about babies is Holy Spirit. Alone, it is impossible. the nearest drink. doesn’t matter what we do because May our lives be such that we are of how they do not fail to let you know what they think at all times. Although In Johns’ Revelation, God says, ‘So, we attend church once a week, pray good flavour to God and may we be it must be said that generally they a people who constantly put a smile because you are lukewarm - neither a couple of times a day and place a substantial amount in the collecscream, and you have to guess what hot nor cold – I am about to spit you on His face. tion bag. But it matters how we live on earth they want! What also fasout of my mouth.’ That is a serious our lives. It matters how we treat cinates me is how everything they statement for God to make. Having grab a hold of, goes straight into their seen a baby’s reaction to something our subordinates, superiors and colmouths. Inevitably they do suckle distasteful, coupled with my reaction leagues at work. It matters how we on something distasteful like a lemon or piece of clothing. The response is, for lack of a better word, interesting. The face contorts, eyes close, their little legs kick about and the hand reaches into their mouth and hurls the object out with a slight grunt.
Senzo 6
DOUBLE TAKE
Take one I have to admit that I have a rather strange quirk... for some reason my brain has decided that tea only tastes good when it comes from a mug with a white interior! I know that this sounds strange and people have told me more than once that it's a little crazy so I have taken the time to try and understand this oddity in character. It's interesting that what I have discovered has allowed me deduce that I am not completely off my rocker! It turns out that sight has been scientifically proven as having an effect on your perception of taste. Taste is more accurately termed “flavour” as it is the perception of stimuli received from the mouth, the eyes and the nose. Dana Small1, a neuroscientist at the John B. Pierce Laboratory in New Haven, Connecticut, and the Yale School of Medicine explains an experiment conducted by some French researchers. They made “a white wine red with an odourless dye and asked a panel of wine experts to describe its taste. The connoisseurs described the wine using typical red wine descriptors rather than terms they would use to evaluate white wine, suggesting that the colour played a significant role in the way they perceived the drink.” In another example, consider eating a steak dyed green, or a blue pancake? When dye is added it doesn't affect the actual flavour of the steak but try and eat it... I can guarantee most of you won't be able to bring yourselves to do it and those of you who do will not enjoy it half as much as a regular brown succulent-juicy looking sirloin!
Meaning:
Peeling away the layers of deception in order to savour God's good flavour in its pure and true form.
By Leanne Rhodes
tasting Eyes
2 So if you see God as angry and ready to zap you with a lightning bolt you may experience Him like a really hot Durban curry. ... On the other hand, if you are going through a rough time, His presence may be like the comfort of a steaming mug of
hot chocolate.
This brings forth the question: why does sight have such a profound influence on taste? One theory as discussed by G Fields 2, from NEWTON, suggests that our previous experience affects our perception of flavour. “For example,” he states, “we remember that when bread goes bad, it will often have a green fungus growing on it. What if you dyed the bread that same colour in spots? Because of your past experience with bad bread, you would see the dyed bread as "bad", even though it is only dye, and therefore it probably would taste different to you.” This also explains why children are more open to strange coloured and unusual looking food – their “taste memory” has not been conditioned through multiple experiences and they are therefore more open to sampling it.
References: Dana Small April 2, 2008 Scientific American:How does the way food looks or its smell influence taste? http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=experts-how-does-sight-smell-affect-taste G. Fields: Sight and Food Behaviors 12/12/2004 http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen01/gen01724.htm NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators.
Take two
There is a passage in the Bible that says “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34 v 8 NLT). This has always confused me. How can you taste God? I can understand seeing God, because I see it in His creation, His people and by reading His Word. In my mind's eye, I imagine the stories of old! However, when I saw how closely taste and sight are bound in producing flavour, a doorway to a whole new way of seeing God opened up to me and I came to realise...how you see God affects His flavour in your life!
So if you see God as angry and ready to zap you with a lightning bolt you may experience Him like a really hot Durban curry. If you see Him as someone who doesn't care and has ignored you your whole life, His flavour to you might be the sharp bitter zest of a ruby grapefruit. On the other hand, if you are going through a rough time, His presence may be like the comfort of a steaming mug of hot chocolate. We need to keep in mind that our previous experiences affect our tastes today and this is also true with our perception of God; just as a harmless dye in regular tasting food puts you off a perfectly good meal so our images of God are often tainted by our past. In the past you may have come to know God as leaving a bitter taste in your mouth. So now when you are faced with anything bearing those characteristics (the same dye) you immediately react as if it were that past situation. The Psalm encourages us to “taste and see” that the Lord is good. If we were to switch those two words around to read “See and taste that the Lord is good” we can capture even more of its meaning. We are encouraged to modify our sight in order to taste His nature properly. If we ask God to open our eyes to His true nature and not what we have created, we can expect Him to take us on a whole new journey down the aisles of an eternal all-you-can-eat buffet. Then we will taste the Lord and know that He tastes GOOD.
Taste and see that the Lord is good, His mercy endures forever. (Psalm 34 v 8) When someone offers me a bite of their chocolate or a piece of their cake, often I will recline the invitation. As MUCH as what I would prefer not to, I know that the chances that I would want more and the chance of not be able to have any would be quite high. We're told though in this scripture to taste and see that the Lord is good. The great thing about this is that there is SO much more waiting after that one little taste and we will never be denied the privilege of having more! Our God is Sovereign, meaning He reigns over EVERYTHING. He is a King, He is royalty, He is Divine. How regularly does the word “divine” come out of your mouth when you're really hungry and you take that first bite of your favourite dinner? No wonder God says “Taste! And SEE that the Lord is good”. I encourage you to sit down and have dinner with the King (even if it means physically setting aside time to have dinner with Him and listening to Him) and see how truly Divine He is!
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