Don’t Complicate Ice Cream or Life

Baskin-Robbins has 31 different flavors of ice cream; three will do. I have read that there are over a thousand different flavors of ice cream. A good question might be, “Why do we have to complicate things?” In the early years of my childhood, I thought that vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry were the only flavors on the planet, and I was good with that.

My current favorite is vanilla ice cream with real peanut butter mixed in. I could eat it every day but for good health reasons, it is only an occasional treat with reasonable portion control. If you’ve never tried it, you will thank me.

Back to my original question, “Why do we have to complicate things?” Why do we as humans try to tweak everything? The more people we get in a room to discuss a problem, the more complicated the potential solution becomes (bureaucrats and politicians come to mind).

Countries and societies have many complicated problems and folks have formulated even more complicated so-called solutions. I tend to believe that most good solutions start at the bottom not at the top and are simple not complicated. It has become apparent the laws on the books are only as good as the people who execute them and only as effective as someone’s will to enforce them or desire to break them.

The simple reason we have laws is because people do not behave. If we behave, everything just runs smoother. Even if they take murder off the books, you are safe with me. If your wife winks at me, I will refuse her offer. I had rather give you a dollar than to take one from you. It is not because I am an inherently good person but because Jesus has put His love and His Spirit in my heart. It’s not complicated!

At the primary level—the personal and the uncomplicated level, Jesus said to love your neighbor and this was reiterated and expounded by the Apostle Paul in Romans,

Romans 13:8-10 NKJV
(8) Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.
(9) For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
(10) Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

I do not need a 50,000 word-document written by a law clerk for me to love my neighbor. I just need to love my neighbor. I just need to treat him as I would want to be treated. And I need my neighbor to do the same for me and my family. Let’s start there! If enough of us would yield ourselves to God, His Spirit, and His Word, the troubles of our world would melt as a late spring snow.

Now that I have that off my chest, I am going to treat myself to some vanilla ice cream with a little peanut butter mixed in—it’s not that complicated, and it is so good! Try it!

Yours on the Journey,

Harry L. Whitt