Life Through the Lens: How do you peel a banana?

This post was contributed by Kevin Schrapel.

Many would say there is no right or wrong way to peel a banana.

However, there may be a “planned way”: the way it was designed to be peeled, complete with a handle.

Ask a monkey – he hasn’t been influenced by society.

To quote Wikipedia:

Upside-down. This way is also known as the “monkey method” since it is how monkeys are said to peel bananas. When the tip of a banana is pinched with two fingers, it will split, and the peel comes off in two clean sections.

Society often decides which is the “best” way to operate, irrespective of the designer or creator’s plans.

Society will often decree, “this or that is best”.

But is it?

Maybe we need, personally, to ask, “Are my goals the best; are they right for my family, my friends, my community?”

We tend to believe there must always be a better way to live together in peace and harmony.

We choose to ignore the “handles” God, in love, worked into his great plan for peace and harmony, for us, as individuals, families and a community.

The designer and creator of families and communities also designed handles that, when used, makes things more effortless.

Family members who hold onto the “handles” of love for each other support each other, learn to laugh and cry together, forgive each other, and find that life is more fulfilling and that it is easier to achieve pleasing outcomes.

With the creation of individuals, there came the design for families, and with families comes community.

True community will hold onto the handles brought by God and demonstrated by his son, Jesus: care and respect for all who need it – the abused, the homeless, the bullied, the hungry, the lonely, the frail, the lost, the weak, the down-trodden.

The best handle to hold onto is Jesus: his love, his examples, the influences he can bring to a situation and, most importantly, his forgiveness, which brings the knowledge that God is a God of love and care.

Jesus respected and cared for the outcast.

He healed sickness and blindness.

He encouraged when someone was down.

If we accept his forgiveness, know he cares, follow his example of how to “peel a banana” – or how to deal with life – he has promised life will be fuller, that he will help us find our way through the trouble spots, and that we will know his love personally.

Cheers and God bless.

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