Most of my life I have been the type of person that would not hesitate to try something new. But as I have gotten older that tendency has weakened and I am more interested in staying with the things I am familiar with. Over my lifetime I have found food that I really like so I will go into a different restaurant and order the same thing.
The reality is, however, that not everyone fixes the same food in the same way. I have had great hamburgers in one place and very average ones in others. It has to do with the condiments, the type of meat used, the amount of heat and time the meat is cooked, and even the freshness of the bun. That is a number of things that have to be right for that hamburger to be as good as it can be.
In life there are many things that require a different environment. Take plants for instance. They may flourish in one type of soil but die in another. When we were traveling every week, it was so uplifting to see the palm trees in the winter months as we drove into the deep southern states. As much as I like palm trees, I would be foolish to think that I could grow them in my back yard because the winter temperature in Ohio is much different than it is in Florida.
We cannot expect everything to taste the same in every establishment that serves food, or expect every plant to flourish in winter weather, yet we tend to expect people to measure up to our standard. That standard is usually the one we prefer because it is what we have become accustomed to. Does that make one standard fit all?
In 1 Chronicles 29 David had gathered material for the house of God and it included “glistening stones of various colors.” In Matthew 4:24, “ They brought to Jesus all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them.”
If all of the stones that David gathered for the house of God would have been the same color, where would the beauty be? Or if Jesus would have only healed those with leprosy, where would that have left all of the other people with various diseases?
There have been countless times, when people insist on want they are accustomed to, and have missed something better. Why not try something new and celebrate the differences in people and things? If you will just try it, you might find that the Kingdom life has a lot to offer that we have been missing.
We explore these truths at The Gathering Place every Sunday morning at 10:30 and Wednesday evening at 7. Join us for our Summer Festival June 18-20.
