I told Emily today that I didn't want to try beer, because I was afraid I would like it. (Yes, I am a snob and I have prejudices.) She proceeded to joke about people who force themselves to drink beer or wine until they like it.
Did I tell her that years ago, I forced myself to drink coffee because I wanted to like it, and I am in fact in the middle of a very long process of learning to like wine?
Yes, of course I told her that. I have gotten very used to this conversation:
Person: Haha, strange people do this!
Me: I do that.
Person: Yes, that's what I said.
But is it really such a bad thing to force yourself to like something? I've always thought of it as just another, though slightly odd, form of discipline. Isn't Christianity a long process of forcing ourselves to like and appreciate good, moral, right things because we want to be the sort of person who does?
So say I teach myself to like coffee because I want to be the sort of person who likes coffee. That process develops a strain of persistence and dedication to something other than myself, and that new moral strength can then be used in teaching myself to like reading my Bible or to be nice to jerks. All to the good, yes?
Of course, I am strange, so maybe my opinion is moot. I used to sleep on my stomach, and one day I worried that someday I would get pregnant and would be so infuriated that I couldn't sleep on my stomach. So I taught myself to sleep on my back, and that's pretty much the main way I sleep now. (Unfortunately, I learned sleeping on your back is also bad for pregnant women, so any comments of "thinking before acting" are entirely valid.)
Maybe forcing yourself to like something is not so much a forcing thing as an acclimating thing? I think a lot of our dislikes are not based on actuality but more on a bad previous experience or even worse, no experience at all, just a prejudice. So maybe you just needed to be acclimated to something that was always good even if you didn't think so?
ReplyDeleteThis thought readily fits with accepting Christ as well. You don't have to force yourself to appreciate His love, you only have to realize how good it has been all the time.
I never had to force myself to like beer...I loved the smell and the taste even as a child but of course rarely if ever had any. (My dad did not like beer so there was none in the house.) Now that I can have all I want, it is no big deal and I rarely drink it, but it is always good. (Bud Lite does not count. This is not a beer.)