“It’s what you get used to,” Betsy replies when one of our children exclaim the perils of being confronted with a jug of unknown milk. Betsy and I both grew up on 2% during a time when ‘experts’ recommended skim milk and now we buy nothing but whole milk–therefore that’s what our children enjoy drinking. Raw milk, goat’s milk, almond milk, oat milk…the options are growing constantly.
Is skim, 2%, and whole milk equally delicious? That’s a matter of opinion. Are they equally nutritious? That’s not a matter of opinion.
If you are used to drinking water, which has no taste or calories, even skim milk seems like an amazing upgrade. If you are used to the nutrition of whole milk, however, skim milk is a disappointing response to our body’s needs.
I’ve always appreciated Hebrew 5:12-14 as a reminder that there are differing types of nourishment and it challenges me to consider what I’m pursuing. Milk / meat is one way to differentiate the various choices available to us today. However, it struck me that we have still more choices than milk and meat. Within the milk category, we can drink, among others, skim, 2%, or whole milk.
Recently, my mother was telling me about a sermon she had heard in which the preacher, who had prepared for what seemed like a long time to deliver this sermon, spent most of his time telling stories and doing object lessons (she mentioned a tape measure and volunteers) and not very much time at all reading the Scriptures and exhorting from them. She felt empty–drinking skim milk, perhaps.
I told her a similar account where someone had recommended a Youtube sermon by a well-known preacher. I watched the first ten minutes in which he tells entertaining stories about his growing-up years…and he finally reads a bible verse–actually–three words–part of one Bible verse and begins to give a motivational message…and that’s when I left and found something better to do. I couldn’t put my finger on it at the time, but now I have the words to describe it–skim milk.
Other times, people have recommended some CCM song to me and I’ve had the same feeling. Kind of full but kind of empty. Skim milk fills your belly, as does water as does whole milk. So you kind of feel full, but then it doesn’t last or make an impact near to the same extent. There are older hymns which aren’t of high quality either.
I’ve struggled to know how to tell people what I think about skim milk. It is better than drinking diet soda (confession time for me!) and more nourishing than water. So, I don’t want to discourage someone to leave skim milk and go back to the poisons they used to consume. Yet, I don’t find this stuff very nourishing at all, and certainly filling my belly with skim milk leaves no room (time) for whole milk. I want to show them that there is something much better than skim milk for them. Yet, they are used to it so they like the taste.
A heavy dose of scripture IS better than a few words here or there. Songs with strong, scripture-heavy messages ARE better than a few words repeated over and over.
You’ve heard wise people say, ‘good’ is the enemy of ‘best.’ Without wanting to be holier-than-thou or acting as if I have found and only feast on ‘whole milk,’ I still think we need to be honest and recognize that not all spiritual activities are equally nutritious. And, that’s not a matter of opinion.