I was reading a cooking magazine a few months ago which claimed to have formulated the best recipe for chicken and dumplings—one of my family’s favorite meals, as well as a great way to stretch a dollar of the weekly grocery budget. Halfway through the article I found a big problem.
This magazine is based in Boston, its editor from Vermont. I already had a suspicion what their “best” recipe would contain—big puffy dumplings resembling drowned biscuits. In the South, especially the poor rural south, most prefer flat “slicker style” dumplings, akin to noodles or pasta, enriched with egg yolks and sometimes butter, even chicken fat if possible.
Sure enough, near the end of the article we readers were informed that the panel of tasters greatly preferred the “Yankee style” dumplings (that was their wording, not mine), “except for two holdouts from Kentucky.” Really? Do you suppose if the magazine had been based in Atlanta, with the panel predominantly Southern, that the results might have been overwhelmingly in favor of the Southern style dumplings “except for two holdouts from Connecticut?”
Taste has a lot to do with your background, what you grew up eating, what your parents did and did not like, and what was available in your area. My boys loved fried okra. Some of the friends they brought home from college didn’t even know what it was, and were almost afraid to try it. We are blessed to live in a society so wealthy that we can choose what we like and don’t like. For most of us, eating has more to do with pleasure than necessity.
Unfortunately, that spoiled attitude has spilled over into our spiritual lives. We think we can take it or leave it as we choose, without ill effect; and if we take it, we think we can choose how we take it. Our Creator doesn’t get to choose how He wants to be served. We get to choose how, when, where, even if. We get to choose which parts of this law we want to follow, and which we want to ignore. We can even interpret it any way we like, even if our interpretation ignores the context or plainly contradicts another part of it. We get to do all this choosing and He must be satisfied with what we want, and what we like. No wonder anthropologists talk about Deity as something each culture creates.
Yes, each culture creates gods they want to worship, but that is not Deity. Until we understand that the concept of Deity does not involve our likes and dislikes at all, we will never be approved by that Deity. As long as we think our opinions matter, we are not serving God, we are simply serving ourselves.
God is immutable. Truth is absolute. Obedience is not a request but a demand. We can choose to disobey, but the consequences will not be pleasant.
Thus says Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts: I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God. And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I established the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and that shall come to pass, let them declare. Fear not, neither be afraid: have I not declared unto you of old, and showed it? and you are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? yea, there is no Rock; I know not any. Isa 44:6-8.
For the recipe accompanying this post, click > Dene's Recipes page
Dene Ward
This magazine is based in Boston, its editor from Vermont. I already had a suspicion what their “best” recipe would contain—big puffy dumplings resembling drowned biscuits. In the South, especially the poor rural south, most prefer flat “slicker style” dumplings, akin to noodles or pasta, enriched with egg yolks and sometimes butter, even chicken fat if possible.
Sure enough, near the end of the article we readers were informed that the panel of tasters greatly preferred the “Yankee style” dumplings (that was their wording, not mine), “except for two holdouts from Kentucky.” Really? Do you suppose if the magazine had been based in Atlanta, with the panel predominantly Southern, that the results might have been overwhelmingly in favor of the Southern style dumplings “except for two holdouts from Connecticut?”
Taste has a lot to do with your background, what you grew up eating, what your parents did and did not like, and what was available in your area. My boys loved fried okra. Some of the friends they brought home from college didn’t even know what it was, and were almost afraid to try it. We are blessed to live in a society so wealthy that we can choose what we like and don’t like. For most of us, eating has more to do with pleasure than necessity.
Unfortunately, that spoiled attitude has spilled over into our spiritual lives. We think we can take it or leave it as we choose, without ill effect; and if we take it, we think we can choose how we take it. Our Creator doesn’t get to choose how He wants to be served. We get to choose how, when, where, even if. We get to choose which parts of this law we want to follow, and which we want to ignore. We can even interpret it any way we like, even if our interpretation ignores the context or plainly contradicts another part of it. We get to do all this choosing and He must be satisfied with what we want, and what we like. No wonder anthropologists talk about Deity as something each culture creates.
Yes, each culture creates gods they want to worship, but that is not Deity. Until we understand that the concept of Deity does not involve our likes and dislikes at all, we will never be approved by that Deity. As long as we think our opinions matter, we are not serving God, we are simply serving ourselves.
God is immutable. Truth is absolute. Obedience is not a request but a demand. We can choose to disobey, but the consequences will not be pleasant.
Thus says Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts: I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God. And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I established the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and that shall come to pass, let them declare. Fear not, neither be afraid: have I not declared unto you of old, and showed it? and you are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? yea, there is no Rock; I know not any. Isa 44:6-8.
For the recipe accompanying this post, click > Dene's Recipes page
Dene Ward
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