subject: Confessions of a Picky Apple Eater, Part II [print this page] Confessions of a Picky Apple Eater, Part II
Although my kitchen bears red apples all through it, I only like to eat the green apples. In other words, what I portray in my home is not what I preferon my palate.It came as quite a surprise to me that there is also acorrelation between my love for apples and my spiritual journey. See if any of these "a-peel" to you.
1. I don't like the seeds. The seed is the Word of God, full of potential for growth and change. While prayer is vital, Bible study is essential! Prayer is us speaking to God; study is hearing God speaking to us. Ask Mary, who desired to be with Jesus instead of doing the household chores that her sister, Martha, worked at so diligently. The Savior said that Mary chose the best part because she chose to be with Him.
2. I don't eat the core. We don't want to get the the core of the matter.The real reasons why I do or don't do the things that I do or don't do. The real reason why the marriage isn't working. The real reason why we are losing our young people to worldly lusts. The real reason why our health is failing, our finances aren't in order, our family isn't getting along. In I Samuel 1, when Hannah finally stopped blaming Penninah for her grief and focused on her own issues, God granted her request and gave her children. And we never heard from that other woman again.
3. I don't like it if it's too mushy inside.We preach love, but we handle one another from a distance. "With a long-handled spoon," as my mother used to say. Getting mushy makes us uncomfortable, One woman made a lot of folks uncomfortable when she openly poured her love for the Master from her box of Alabaster. She got mushy with the One who took her sins away! How mushy are we willing to get?
4. I prefer to cut it and not just bite right into it. We'd much rather cut chunks out of our fellow members, slice them up slowly and spit them out rather than take the time to bite into a relationship with them and get to know them for who they really are. The Woman at the Well had been cut up so many times that she chose to risk heat stroke, drawing her water in the heat of the day, rather than to mingle with the church folks. It was in her most lonely and desperate state that the Savior passed her way and changed her life forever.
5. I don't like the skin. We tolerate other cultures and ethnicities, but we really don't like them very much. West Indian versus African American.Northerners against Southerners. Youth versus the aged. Black versus White. Lighter skin against darker skin.Religion, political views, social issues, education and finances are as dividing as theMason Dixon line. We judge based on color, size, shape, talent, disability - all kinds of externals. The Lord struck Miriam with leprosy until she learned how to get along with her sister-in-law Zipporah. What method will He have to use to teach us how to get along?
6. It doesn't taste good if I've just brushed my teeth. As the song says, I once was lost in sin and Jesus took me in, and then a little light from heaven filled my soul... But it leaves out the part where now I'm so heaven bound that I'm no earthly good. See, we have moved on. We are well beyond ourminimum waged job, teen-aged pregnancy, felonies, the project housing development, the food stamps, the smoking, the heavy drinking, all the drugs and the life of lawlessness. God saved us from that. We've brushed our teeth, as it were, and cleaned up a bit and now those things don't suit our taste anymore. And we all forget, don't we? It took her cousin Mordecai, to remind Queen Esther where she had come from and that she stood to receive the same doom as the rest of the Jewish nation if she did not stand up for her people.
7. Once it's bitten, I don't want to eat anymore if it turns brown. If you've ever been snubbed by the ones who claim that you are their sibling in Christ, you know how this one feels. You know the pain of being told, in word or in deed, that "we don't want your kind here. Now that you've been tainted, you don't fit into our fruit bowl anymore." It usually happens once they find out a piece of your past that isincompatible witha sanctified life. Please note that the snubbing usually comes from the ones who are most familiar with your specific temptation. Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah was considered "damaged goods." Two husbands had died, and Judah didn't want to risk another's son's death at the hands of Tamar. But when you read the story, you see that the fault wasnot hers. God allowed those men to die because of their own rebellion.
8. I don't like it unless it is lukewarm. We would rather be lukewarm Christians, sitting on the fence and observing, rather than getting grass stains on our knees by actually playing on the field of life. If we were cold, it would be too obvious. If we were hot, it might change lives. Lukewarm? The Lord doesn't like lukewarm - He spits that stuff out! Rhoda almost cost Peter his life because she took a lukewarm approach to his knocking at the door. It's too important that we choose to be on fire for God,no matter what.
9. I only like them in the morning. When I see you at church, that's quite enough, thank you very much. Don't call me through the week if you have problems or needs or wants; you will have to deal with those on your own. I know that others will know we are Christians by our love, but certainly God doesn't expect me to love you EVERY DAY! Dorcas learned how to care for people whenever they needed it; not just when the church doors were swinging open. Her life of giving was so impressive that she was even raised from the dead. I'm afraid that if death had come to some of us, the others would have breathed a sigh of relief...(Did I really say that out loud?)
10. I don't like the apples that have bruises on them. You're welcome to come to our church, but please don't bring too much baggage. No painful divorces, no disabilities, no diseases, no grieving, no need for any REAL help. We don't like bruises for they remind us of either our own painful pasts or of something that we pray will never, everhappen to us. Ruth, the foreign widow,stood in danger of being scorned by Naomi's people, but she went out to glean in a stranger's field anyway, baggage and all. There she found a new husband and had a son that was a direct ancestor to the Savior.
People don't care that we hold up pictures of our Savior, wear crosses around our necks or sport tee-shirts questioning, "What would Jesus do?" They want to know if we believe what we claim to believe and if that belief has made a change in our own lives.
