Spiritual Trail Mix
A Monday morning devotional
I love trail mix. When I worked at Walgreens in high school, I would use my employee discount to buy their brand of trail mix almost every day. I would have a whole bag of trail mix for breakfast during my senior year of high school… until I learned that the whole bag of trail mix was over 1,000 calories.
The thing I love about trail mix is the same thing that some people dislike about it. I love how the salty and sweet flavors complement each other. I’ve never been one to pick through the trail mix to only eat the parts I like (I’m looking at you, M&M eaters). When all the pieces come together in one handful, that’s when trail mix is delicious. Not too salty, not too sweet; but just right.
The trail mix metaphor has been used many times before: it’s easy to view the Bible like a bag of trail mix. We can search through it to pick out the parts we like and only ingest those. But, like trail mix, the Bible is better when it is taken as a whole. Yes, there are parts of the Word that are “hard to understand” (2 Pet. 3:16) and Jesus spoke many a “hard saying” (Jn. 6:60), but these difficult parts cannot be left in the bottom of the bag uneaten.
When we read the Bible with breadth, we will sometimes feel like John in Revelation when he was told to eat the book of God’s words. It made his stomach bitter, but was as sweet as honey in his mouth (Rev. 10:9). God’s Word, like trail mix, has both sweet and bitter. We have to take them together. It’s better when we do.
If we only take the sweet and leave the bitter, we won’t have the energy we need for the “trail” of life. Trail mix was originally meant to be a quick handful of energy for when you are hiking or exerting yourself outdoors. The “bitter” parts of God’s Word help keep us on the narrow trail that leads to eternal life while the “sweet” parts motivate us to keep on hiking. Without them both, we may be hiking on the wrong trail, or not have the energy to finish the hike.
If we pick through God’s Word and only take the parts we like, we are not following God, but ourselves. If God never challenges me... if righteousness is never hard... if my preconceived notions are never shattered... if God always does and says exactly what I would do or say if I were Him… then I’m not following God. I am following myself.
I know myself well enough to know that if I follow myself, I won’t end up where I want to be in the end.
God, help us to take the bitter with the sweet and keep on hiking for Your glory.