Scripture as Nutrition

I overheard a comment the other day: A lady at church was talking about being at a buffet with a friend of hers, and her friend refused to eat any sweet potatoes because she objected to the name: They aren’t sweet, and they aren’t potatoes. She suggested that her friend try some of the yams, instead.

I used to know a chef that told me that sweet potatoes and yams are very different. I asked him to explain the difference to me, because I have eaten both, and I am unaware of any. He insisted that they were very different, and refused to elucidate any further. Most people I would take that to mean that there really isn’t any difference, but this guy was a straight-shooter. If he says there’s a lot of difference, even if he doesn’t want to get into what the differences are, then I tend to believe him. I did some research on the matter, and found that they really are two different things, but, that sweet potatoes are often referred to as yams (in fact, from what I read, the ‘yams’ at the buffet were most likely sweet potatoes in all actuality). So maybe I haven’t really had both. Maybe the candied yams I had were really sweetened sweet potatoes; I don’t know, but at least they were sweet. Just as an aside, I found out that ube, which had been introduced to me as a Filipino sweet potato, is actually in the yam family.

This morning I was reading Proverbs, and I remembered that several years ago, someone commented to me that Psalms and Proverbs are like the candy of the Scriptures. At the time, that struck as being slightly wrong, although I understood what he was trying to say. They are generally easy reading, and pleasant to read (there are exceptions, of course, many of the psalms begin with dark situations, but at least end on a hopeful note). Bible scholars refer to these books as books of wisdom. There is a lot in them about how to live life without getting entailed in the things that, in the long run, you don’t really want to be involved in, even when those things seem so desirable in the here and now. There have been times in my life when I have felt down, and I have read for a while in Psalms or Proverbs, and then felt much better; more positive about myself, and spiritually cleaner. Some of those times I walked away without even a memory of what I had read, and I think that is unfortunate. The term candy, though, suggests, not only sweetness, but a total lack of nutritional value. Believe me when I tell you that you can provide your soul with a lot of nourishment by reading Psalms and Proverbs. I will admit that sometimes it doesn’t seem like you’re getting a lot of good from reading them, but the good is there. If you really spend some time studying what they have to say (not just reading it, setting down, and walking away from it, without even remembering what you read, as I have done), then it could really do you some good. Both yams and sweet potatoes have appreciable nutritional value, even if they don’t really seem like it when you are eating them, even when they are “candied.” I would like to suggest that it is more appropriate to refer to Psalms and Proverbs as the sweet potatoes of the Scripture, rather than the candy. I’d also like to point out that, if we’re going to identify different parts of the bible as different foods, then it’s important to get a well-rounded diet. Make sure that you are getting sustenance from all the different food groups; in other words, don’t just pick some parts of the bible that you like, and read those parts over and over, but read the whole thing over and over.