My wife and I came close to retiring in Maui Hawaii. We love that paradise and very nearly pulled the trigger in making it our home, but in the end we simply felt it was too far away from our kids and grandkids.
We’ve visited Maui often and during those trips I became very familiar with pineapples. The pineapple is actually very difficult and even downright dangerous to harvest due to its sharp pointed leaves. They are hand-picked and it is back breaking hot work. Workers wear long sleeved shirts and heavy gloves to protect themselves as they work in the hot sun and due to the vast numbers of pineapples crowded together in a field; it is quite common to be lanced by their sharp pointed leaves that are as sharp as daggers. In fact it is so difficult a job that most native Hawaiian workers will not do it, and the labor force is imported primarily from the Philippines.
I remind myself of a pineapple.
Huh?
Prior to becoming a believer, like a pineapple in a field one would never realize that anything good resided inside my tough exterior or shell. And in fact it was dangerous and disgusting to be around me, and most wouldn’t have bothered.
For some strange reason God loved me in spite of my vile nature, and decided to transform my life. I’ve often said that Jesus doesn’t see us as we “are” rather how we could “be” with His help. In my case I’m glad He made the effort.
It has a long process and is still occurring. Progress has been made in that I quit drugging & drinking, fighting, smoking cigarettes, chasing loose women, being a criminal, and even began making some progress towards eliminating coarse and vulgar language from my vocabulary.
Amazingly these days I even find myself being nice on occasion, and after many years of being antisocial and a loner, I’ve actually developed quite a large number of folks who consider me to be their friend.
So God plucked me out of the field, chopped off those dangerous pointed stiletto leaves, and then started removing that hard protective shell (rind). It was an arduous task, but progress has been made and as He peeled away that tough exterior, remarkably some fruit began to appear.
So the other night I nagged my wife and mentioned that I wish she would make a nice peach cobbler like she used to make when we were younger. The next night she smiled and revealed a huge portion of warm peach cobbler with two scoops of ice cream atop.
Oh yeah! Yummy!
As she looked on I took a big bite, and I bit into the worst tasting cobbler I’ve ever put in my mouth.
Hmmm . . . What to do? If I spit it out, I would hurt her feelings. If I ate it and tried to smile, I might vomit all over the kitchen floor. So the question was: Do I spit, smile or vomit? She was standing there smiling, obviously proud of her handiwork and nice gesture, and looking at me expectantly.
The decision was made I devoured it in three huge bites; (force swallowed it which reduced the time spent in my mouth tasting it). I very nearly gagged as I choked it down. I thanked her, gave her a big hug, and told her it was simply dee-licious! She was proud of herself and beamed as I told her I appreciated her remembering me.
The next day she was getting ready to cook something and grabbed the bag of what she thought was flour only to discover it was corn meal. She realized that she had used corn meal instead of flour in the cobbler. She came to me and was laughing as she told me what had happened and asked if I didn’t notice a difference.
I said, “Well YEAH, but I didn’t want to hurt your feelings”.
Awwww . . .
I suppose that I’m not like a pineapple after all. Pineapples do not continue to ripen once they are picked. The more Christians hear the word of God the more they ripen and the better the fruit they produce. Being nice was never in my nature, but God is all about being nice and personifies love.
Don’t be an old prickly pineapple – Encourage someone by being nice to them today, (even if you feel like vomiting).
Romans 7:15
I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.
September 8, 2014 – Click here to listen