Finding God in a Gallon of “Vanilla” Ice Cream

This is somewhat of a response to my wife’s post about me being a vanilla guy. It’s hard to be a plain old vanilla guy in a world with so many three-name options. I like vanilla, so why change or mess up a good thing. It’s like the flavor sweet and sour? Which flavor are you trying to achieve? Sweet or Sour? To me, these flavors conflict with each other. Give me one or the other. It’s the same with vanilla don’t mess up a good thing.

Well, before I go too far trying justify or defend my position as a plain old vanilla guy let me get to my real reason for writing this post. When I read Krystal’s post, “We All Scream for Ice Cream,” I at first was kind of angry. I didn’t tell her that, but it sort of felt like she was making fun of the plain old vanilla guy. And once I got over myself I had to laugh. I have some issues to deal with and it was more then just being a plain old vanilla guy. So from here I need to back up a bit so you can see what I mean.

The book “Radical” talks a lot about sacrificial giving. Not giving from ones excess, but giving from a place where we give up or go without the things that tie us to this world. These are the things I “think” I need, deserve and can’t do without. Sacrificial giving places our reliance solely on God for the things that really matter. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Sometimes I don’t fully consider what this part of the Lord’s Prayer is saying. To me it saying, Lord, I am relying on you for my very existence—sustain me this day. God doesn’t want me to die so he will give me what I need to live each day.

Right about now you may be saying to your self, what’s the connection between the Lord’s Prayer and vanilla ice cream? Well for me, I had come to a place where I thought I needed or should I say deserved Costco Vanilla Ice Cream to sustain my life. And when others made the suggestion, specifically my wife, to give up Costco Vanilla Ice Cream for a year you can imagine my reaction. Are you serious! I actually obsessed about this for days, thinking it’s only ice cream and just vanilla at that. I mean, I’m a simple guy, all I want is a little vanilla ice cream.

It was then that it fully hit me. This little thing, ice cream, had become an idol in my life and had become somewhat of a power in my life that was keeping from what God was trying to show me and what I think Platt is getting at with regard to sacrificial giving.

In Luke 12 Jesus says, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?  Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?” I was worrying about something that really didn’t matter and it was taking the focus off the thing that really matters and Jesus states at the end of this passage—“For where your treasure is, there your heart is also.