As we round out the college football season, I can’t help but share a few things I learned while supporting my LSU Tigers.
This past semester, I took a little trip to Tuscaloosa, AL with some of my best friends to cheer on the Tigers in our match-up against the Crimson Tide. It was my first, and sadly my last, away game of my college career, but I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.
One of my best friends in college (who’s also a future World Racer) Olivia Bourgeois, had met some wonderful Christ-loving families (who happen to be Alabama fans – but we won’t hold that against them this time) this past summer while she was doing mission work in Haiti. These families were more than generous to provide fabulous housing, food and wonderful company the entire weekend. The night before the big game, everyone came together to enjoy an abundance of Cajun and southern food where Olivia and I were introduced to World Race Alumni, Will & Tara Miller.
left to right: Me!, Tara Miller, Will Miller, Olivia “O-Dawg” Bourgeois
It was an incredible blessing to meet this couple! There are so many great things I could say about them, but the thing I loved most about the Millers was their Spirit-filled wisdom and their willingness to share it. Will and Tara spent over an hour talking with us about World Race preparation, their experiences and the lessons they’ve learned over the years. Out of the many conversations we had over the weekend, the piece of wisdom that stood out to me the most was “eat the meat and spit out the bones.”
If at first you decide to take this advice literally, it sounds a bit cannibalistic. I picture a cavewoman-version of myself devouring a meal with little discretion, but savoring every sliver of sustenance lying before me. Cavewoman-Lindsay chucks the inedible bones, tendons and ligaments off to the side with little conscious effort. My focus lies completely in the eating experience with sensory neurons firing rapidly and the knowledge that this meal is providing sustenance.
However, this pearl of wisdom was really meant for spiritual matters. How often do we judge spiritual situations before we really even know what they’re all about? Speaking in tongues, healing miracles, being ‘slain in the Spirit,’ etc. We hear a story, research it a little on the Internet, maybe ask a close friend and then begin casting judgment on something that was meant to be experienced, not scrutinized. In 1 Thessalonians 5:21 we’re told to “Test everything and keep what is good.” Testing means trying and trying means experiencing. Before I experience something, how do I know what is good – the ‘meat’ – and what are the ‘bones’? How do I know what portions have been given to me as spiritual sustenance and what portions are superfluous? The thing is, most of the time – I don’t know.
But here’s something I do know that carries a similar application – football food. As most football fanatics know, the best thing about gameday (besides taking home the ‘W’) is the food. Whether you experience gameday at an in-home party or you’re out parading on the college campus, you can’t escape the abundance of gameday food. Another thing you can expect at gameday tailgates, especially those hosted by Louisiana folk, are foods you’ve never heard of, seen or smelled before. For some of us, that’s incredibly exciting! We’re ready to dive into every piece of meat, every carb, and every sugary delight we can find. But for others, deciding which foods to eat can be a laborious task. We spend a lot of time perusing, poking & prodding, looking to see what other’s think about it before we’re ready to taste it for ourselves. Hog intestine stuffed with rice, meat scraps and possibly pig’s blood?!? What do you call this? Boudin. Ohhh, maybe it’s not my day to try THAT. I’ll, uh, take a burger please.
And just like that, we miss out on an experience that was very likely meant for us. We’ve allowed our preconceived notions and a few seconds of sensory input, whether legitimate or not, to decide against something that was meant to be experienced. And there are a lot of things that really aren’t meant to be studied, just experienced. We don’t talk about boudin, nobody writes research papers on boudin, and no one takes classes on boudin. We just experience boudin.
And sure, you may decide to only experience boudin once, because despite its irresistible flavor, it may not really be worth the heartburn and the 2 lbs you gain a few hours later. AND THAT’S OK. Because you decided to “eat the meat, and spit out the bones.” You dived into the experience and then processed, ruminated, digested it so that you could discover what was meant for you and what wasn’t.
Now I say all of this with the understanding that as members of Christ, we are actively seeking truth through the Word and spiritual wisdom through prayer. Because, yes, there are certainly situations that we probably shouldn’t experience – things clearly warned against in scripture and in common sense. But there are also plenty of situations we choose not to experience, because we’ve already judged them or “studied them enough” to have so-called sufficient understanding.
So, now as a message to you and to myself, I challenge us to lay aside our desire to understand before experiencing, to decide before diving in, to casting judgment before allowing the Spirit to feed us. The next time we feel the Spirit ask us to experience things beyond our comfort zone such as physical healing in the name of Jesus (Acts 5:15, 19:12) or sharing the Gospel and Holy Spirit with a foreign stranger (Acts 8:28) that we won’t question and try to understand it before we experience it.
I know that if I took the time to study every piece of food – the calories, fat content, the microorganisms inside of it, it’s nutritional effects on my body, the potential flavors and textures – before I allowed myself to eat it — I’d likely never meet my nutritional requirements. Let’s trust the Spirit to provide our spiritual sustenance and we’ll process it as we go. There’s no sense in starving – because hey, a Tiger’s gotta eat.
