Growing up, I can still hear my mother tell me, “Try it, you might like it.” It is one of those lessons I strive to remember even today. I may not have liked something when I was a child, but that does not mean I will not like it now or even 10 years from now. My wife, for example, has not liked zucchini since I met her, for no explainable reason, but that she did not like it. However, a few months ago I made a zucchini and pasta dish that she loved. In fact, she seemed to enjoy it more than anyone else in our household did and has grown to enjoy zucchini since then.
The same is true of restaurants. Our favorite take out place closed down a few months ago and so we sought to find a replacement. The one we tried was ready to be taken off of my experience again list for a number of reasons, until my wife bit into their cheeseburger and said it was one of the best burgers she had eaten in a long time (short of mine). So we gave them a second chance and it is now her go to place from which to order take out. Last night, we tried a restaurant I have wanted to try for a while and never had. Having received some amazing news yesterday, I decided to treat my household to dinner. We will not talk about the strange layout of the pickup window or the poor response time (it should not take 5 minutes to get you change). However, what we all agreed on was that the food did not deliver. The majority of the food was nicely presented, but not seasoned and we all got the feeling it was not fresh, but frozen. The food that had sauce on it was well seasoned, but for the most part had little meat on it. While we will not be ordering from them again, at least we tried. Sometimes we try things and like it and sometimes we do not. However, you never know if you do not try.
This is true of so many aspects of our life. Sometimes life offers us opportunities to try something new. How many times do we say no because we are not sure we are going to like it or not? You will never know until you try. An acquaintance of mine had been going to the same worship space for years and continued to go because that is where she had been going. Then a friend of hers invited her to worship with them at her space. My acquaintance was reluctant to go because it was nothing like what she was accustomed to, but she went and it became a cathartic experience in her life. She heard and experienced something at this “meal” that made her want to go back for seconds. She has now been worshipping there for a few years and her attitude about her own spiritual journey has evolved. While this new space is her home base, and the place she feels nurtured and fed, she has also been intentional about allowing herself to visit other worship settings and experience what they bring to the table. Some she goes back to from time to time and others for her were, like the restaurant we ordered from last night, a single time experience. However, in either case, you do not know whether or not you like something until you try it.
It is like the commercial for Silk almond milk. The person in the commercial did not like something we had never tried. Once he gave in and tried the milk, he realized that he liked it, Sometimes that is how life is. As my mother said, “Try it, you might like it.”