cherry pickin’

Written By Melinda Olsen

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

Do you have certain memories from childhood that you hope you never forget? You know, those memories that just run warm through your veins and can sooth your soul and make you yearn for those days of youth all over again?

That’s how cherry-picking season was for me as a little girl. First, because it reminds me of carefree childhood days where my biggest concern was would I get to go to the dime store uptown to buy some candy, and second because it meant mom was going to make some delicious cherry pies.

We had two cherry trees in our yard in our first home in Colfax, Indiana. Some of the best memories I have, are running barefoot all over the place, smelling the cherry blossoms in the spring, and then cherry-picking time in late summer.

We would climb those trees and reach for the biggest, ripest cherries hanging on the branches.(Of course my brother never missed an opportunity to nail me with one any chance he got.)

I learned quite early, and quickly, that being selective and choosing wisely was important before popping one of those delicious fruits in my mouth. Choose one not quite ripe and it could be terribly sour or terribly bitter. Choose one without fully examining it and you might end up with a worm in your mouth.

Suffice it to say that I learned quite early what it meant to “cherry-pick.”

The etymology of the term cherry-picking tells us that it is a metaphor for the idea of picking through a bowl full cherries and seeking and selecting the very best of them for oneself.

This sounds completely harmless and wise, right?

A good decision is always an informed and well challenged decision, in my humble opinion.

Well, the truth is, cherry-picking is harmless when selecting vegetables and fruit, and making small decisions, but it’s not always the best way to go through life. Cherry picking often leads to ignoring evidences or truths that we may not like to hear because they don’t align with what we want to do, what we want to believe, or how we want to live our lives.

Cherry picking is a logical fallacy that occurs when someone focuses only on evidence that supports their stance, while ignoring evidence that contradicts it. Some examples of when this can be harmful is when a drug company, our doctors, parents, ministers, or anyone leading others or providing important information “cherry-pick” data or truths that impact our lives.

The past several months I have had some interesting conversations with people about discerning truth from lies. We live in a world where that is becoming more and more challenging.

We live in a world that wants to say, and make everyone believe there is no truth, everything is relative.

Technology and the ability to put our fingers to a keyboard and search for virtually anything under the sun is amazing. However, with that ability also comes the ability for anyone to put information out there whether fact or fiction.

We have always lived in a world where wisdom and discernment are necessary to determine truth or lies, but how much truer is that now with such easy access to so many other thoughts, opinions, and rationales?

Listen to absolutely any crowd conversation of late and you will quickly observe that people are DESPERATE for truth, something constant, and not this continual moving target. We are living in a world of constantly moving targets. But there’s one thing that is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

God’s word is not a moving target.

Let me make it known now, I do not have any kind of inside scoop on discerning exact truth from all the lies floating around out there in cyberspace about Covid, vaccines, politics, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, you name it, other than it’s really important to not just take in information that we want to believe, or that fits our personal narrative or our personal agendas.

It is crucial to consider opposing views and opinions as well. A good decision is always an informed and well challenged decision, in my humble opinion.

As I have more and more conversations with younger members of my world, my heart hurts for so many of them. This world of technology has created some very anxious, depressed, over-stimulated, under-impressed, easily persuaded, yet incredibly skeptical of reality, young people.

There is a huge search for meaning and truth, and there is an unspoken struggle, that as a woman in my late 50’s who has lived some life, can discern as a cry to know their life means something: That they are here for a purpose. Something that this world of relativism isn’t giving them. Because it can’t.

Morals, set standards that keep us from “cherry picking.”

Moral relativism is the idea that there is no universal or absolute set of moral principles. It’s a version of morality that advocates “to each your own,” and those who follow it say, “Who am I to judge?”

Normative moral relativism is the idea that all societies should accept each other's differing moral values, assuming that there are no universal moral principles. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” (source: Ethics Unwrapped)

So why is relativism an issue?

The problem with individual and moral relativism is that it lacks a concept of guiding principles of right or wrong. Morality guides our lives. Morals help us discern right from wrong. They guide our desires, what to adhere to and what to object to. Morals help us develop our character qualities.

Morals, set standards that keep us from “cherry picking” because morals set standards that impact the greater good rather than serving the individual.  

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12) This is also known as “the golden rule.” Do unto others…

As long as people buy into moral relativism, the “me first/cherry picking” mentality, and no absolutes, the search for meaning and truth will be perpetuated, and therefore so will all that comes with that uncertainty.

Something to consider, if you struggle with absolutes, the mere fact that we are here is an absolute, and if you recognize and believe that, than there are absolutes, and all is not relative. It’s a truth, and so is it that we all are created on purpose for a purpose.  

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. ( Ephesians 2:10)

All of this ties directly to another conversation that I have had many, many times of late, but also throughout many years of my life, with people of all ages around “cherry picking” moral standards, particularly within the context of the Bible and Biblical standards. I know so many people who call themselves Christians, and live their lives as such, they use the Bible as their moral compass for life, but they doubt the Bible as the actual breathed word of God.

ONLY 24% of Americans believe the Bible is the literal word of God. (Gallup)

Scientist and atheist Victor J. Stenger said “Those who use the Bible as a reference for moral behavior are simply cherry-picking those teachings, such as the Golden Rule, that they have independently decided are moral for other reasons, while ignoring those teachings with which they disagree.”

I know many who believe the Bible is merely a good book of morals/rules for how we should live, but it isn’t really God’s spoken word. Many don’t believe it’s authenticity, the absolute truth/validity of it being God’s breathed word because there are so many interpretations of it, because it has been rewritten through so many years by so many authors, and or because there is so much of it that quite frankly, doesn’t make sense, at least to our “small minds.”

This is always a difficult conversation because believe me, while I am no biblical scholar by any stretch, I have been reading the Bible my whole life, I just read it in its entirety last year, and I am currently reading through it again, and there are MANY things I simply do not understand. I cannot comprehend so much of what I read in scripture, and honestly, I know I never will.

“[The Bible] has survived attack of every kind. Neither barbaric vandalism nor civilized scholarship has touched it. Neither the burning of the fire nor the laughter of skepticism has accomplished its annihilation. Through the many dark ages of man, its glorious promises have survived unchanged.” ~Billy Graham  

  • And yet…

  • Fewer than one in four Americans, 24% believe Bible is literal word of God

  • the lowest in Gallup's 40-year trend

  • 26%, up from 21% in 2014, view the Bible as a book of fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by man

  • BUT…

  • The largest segment, 47%, still think Bible is inspired word of God

This is the first time in Gallup's four-decade trend that biblical literalism has not surpassed biblical skepticism. 

Look, I am not here to convince or even persuade you to believe the Bible truly is the word of God. I do not have that kind of knowledge or power. That is between you and God. I will be the first to admit that there are many, many things called out in scripture, sins to be exact, that I know I am guilty of, and so are people I love deeply that cut me to the core wondering “why?”.

Why is that behavior so wrong? Why are people born to live with certain things that by Your own word is unacceptable to You?

I understand we live in a fallen world, God, but still, why?

I do not profess to understand so much of what God allowed and didn’t allow, or caused or didn’t cause, but one thing I am certain of if this, when I start “cherry picking” what I believe happened or didn’t happen, or God did or didn’t say, or I start deciding what is “really” sinful behavior and what God “probably meant” then the Bible becomes no different than any other book I read and I am essentially behaving and believing as a secular humanist believing in moral relativity.

A secular humanist believes that human beings are capable of being ethical and moral without religion or belief in a deity. It is a belief that human needs and values are more important than religious beliefs, or the needs and desires of humans. An example of humanism is the belief that the person creates their own set of ethics, aka, they are “cherry pickers.”

Imagine a world with no moral compass. A world where we all just pick and choose the good stuff that we like and that which makes us look and feel good, and screw everyone else. I don’t want to live in a world like that.

God’s word cannot be cherry picked which is often why many don’t like it. Believe me, I wish to some degree that I could choose what I liked and do away with what I don’t. There are things in His word I don’t want to hear and do not want to believe about my life and the lives of those I love, but I either believe it is fully His word and truth, or it is just a good book I can apply to my life when I see fit.

So what do we know about the Bible?

Here are just a few things paraphrased from Focus on the Family/how-do-we-know-the-bible-is-true and evidences-that-show-bible-is-true.

1.   It is the best-selling book in history and remains the most controversial.

2.   The Bible was written over a period of 1,500 years by over 40 DIFFERENT authors, everyday people, inspired by God, and yet it fits together cohesively. Its message is unified throughout all 66 chapters.

3.   You might wonder, “Isn’t the Bible just a copy of a copy?” What about accuracy through translations? The scribes who copied Scripture took great care in their work. Accuracy was ensured by a number of safeguards, including the counting of letters in a line and on a page. There are minor differences in manuscripts, called variants, but none of these variants impact or change key Christian beliefs or claims.

4.   It is called God’s Word, because it was written with His inspiration over its authors.

5.   The Bible contains fulfilled prophecy.

6.   We have physical evidence for the Bible. There are historical manuscripts from all throughout history.

7.   The Archaeological Study Bible presents many notes and articles documenting how archeology has again and again proven that the Bible does correspond to historical reality.

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

Ultimately, a person must individually experience the truth of God’s Word for themselves by coming to God and spending time in His word and in prayer.

We don’t “cherry pick” or change God’s message.

God’s message changes us. 

Melinda Olsen

From a divorced, single mom, to remarried and part of a multi-faceted blended family, I can assure you, life does go on after divorce, and it can be better than you imagined.

I see you. I’ve been you.

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