Plain Vanilla

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I was at a conference several yeas ago where I heard great testimonies from a husband and wife team about God bringing them out of horrible circumstances and results of bad choices...real 'Rocky Road' testimonies. The testimonies had truly touched me and filled me with awe at what God did for them and how God was using them to bring other 'Rocky Roads' into the kingdom. Now, I happened to encounter Mr. ‘Rocky Road’ in the parking lot, so I tried to express how much I had enjoyed their testimonies. I really bungled it, though, when I said I had a “Plain Vanilla” testimony. He looked at me sharply and asked, “Are you saved?”

I was a little taken aback, and my reply was an incredibly astute, "Well, yeah…."

“Then it ain’t plain vanilla,” he stated. I stammered something to the effect that I was beginning to learn what God had really done for me, and he smiled and made some encouraging comment and the little exchange passed into history. But, for some reason, I felt like I had been slightly rebuked. He assumed that I meant something was wrong with a Plain Vanilla Testimony, that I considered my testimony in the kingdom to be somehow less than desirable.

The truth is, we all have been conditioned to think of plain vanilla as bland, boring, and uninteresting. Think back to when you were a kid and somebody took you to Dairy Queen for an ice cream cone. Maybe you were disappointed to get a plain vanilla cone instead of a hot fudge sundae or a banana split or even a cone dipped in chocolate with sprinkles on it, but did you turn your nose up at the vanilla cone and consider it not worth eating? Of course not! Vanilla ice cream is still a treat, still a good thing, even if it is plain and unadorned. There are things you can do with plain vanilla that you can’t do with anything else. A root beer float is a beautiful thing when it’s made with vanilla ice cream, but you sure wouldn’t try dousing, say, mint chip ice cream with root beer. And I don’t think a strawberry sundae would be quite as inviting if the strawberries were on top of my favorite ice cream, peppermint candy! Hot fudge might be tasty on Rocky Road ice cream, but I’d consider it a bit of overkill. The plain truth is that Plain Vanilla is the most versatile variety available. You can do just about anything with plain vanilla… just as God can do anything with someone who has been faithful through the normal crises of life…the temptations that are common to all of us…you know, the small things.

And – guess what? Vanilla is necessary! Think about the spice cabinet in the kitchen. There's bound to be some little bottles there with the jars of powders and leaves. I’d just about guarantee you the label on the biggest one (or the only one, if that’s the case) says “Vanilla Extract.” Cooks around the world know that vanilla is an almost universal ingredient in any sweet or dessert dish. If you’re selling your house, real estate agents may even tell you to put a little vanilla on the light bulbs because it has such a pleasing fragrance. Hm…sounds a little familiar, doesn’t it? A little like 2 Corinthians 2:14b -15: “…through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”

So – those of us who have Plain Vanilla Testimonies and think they're dull, bland and uninteresting need a paradigm shift. A lifetime of serving God however and wherever we're called is a good and pleasing thing to Him – even if it seems pretty “Plain Vanilla” to us.