Are you brave or cautious? Are you Type A or B? Do you like things to stay the same or are you always in search of the latest and greatest? Do you like adventure or are you content at home? People are made in all different shapes and sizes and with a wide variety of personalities, but can our personalities be dangerous? I used pizza in my last several blogs and now I want to use my second favorite food group in the next few, ice cream.
My wife loves mint. She checks out Culver’s flavor of day to see if mint is on the calendar and then plans her trips accordingly. She is a creature of habit. She is not really adventurous when it comes to her choices because she has discovered something that she loves and she sticks with it.
I am not a lover of mint. I can eat it, but it is not my favorite. I also don’t like several other flavors either. I like chocolate, vanilla and some toppings, but I don’t typically pick the new an exciting flavor because I know what I like.
So here is the point: theology is a lot like ice cream. The world of ice cream use to be simple, you could choose vanilla or vanilla. Then chocolate came along, then strawberry and suddenly we had choices. People began to accept the new flavors and did not see anything wrong with them. Before we knew it we had black cherry, superman and blue moon. Now we have stores that offer 31 or more different flavors and it takes people seemingly hours to decide what they want to order.
Theology use to be simple, here is what you should believe. Then along came other theologians who said this way of thinking was incorrect and we should start thinking this way and suddenly we had choices. Those choices have led to other choices and now we have 31 or more flavors to choose from and it takes people hours to decide. Plus, along the way it has fed into our personality types. People need variety and so theologians have given us variety. Some people need solid, tested, old and they have stuck with what is proven. The problem is we keep feeding the new and different. Exciting and changing because that feels like progress and progress is good.
Vanilla is the right flavor and the only flavor. More to come.
-Pastor Doug
