The pineapple
story took place in Dutch New Guinea. It covered a period of seven years. it is
a humorous yet profound illustration of the application of a basic Scriptural principle.
As you read this
first-hand account, you will discover that a classic example of the type of
struggles each of us faces until we learn to apply the principle of yielding
personal rights.
My family and I work with
these people in the bush. One day I decided that I was going to bring in some
pineapples. So, I went to another mission station to get them, I got about one hundred
plants. Then I got one of the local men to help me with the planting and I paid
him with salt or whatever he wanted for the days he worked. It seemed to take
awfully long time for those little shoots of pineapple to become big bushes and
finally yield pineapples.
So finally that third
year we could see fresh pineapples coming on and we were just waiting for
Christmas time because that is when they ripe. When Christmas finally came, my
wife and I would go for walks to see if any were ripe enough to eat. Finally,
when they were ripened, but we didn't get a single one of them! The natives
stole every single one! They stole them before they ripe. That is their art.
Steal it before it ripened or the owner gets it.
Here I am, a missionary,
getting angry at these people. Missionaries aren't supposed to get mad. You all
know that. But I got angry. I said, "Look, you guys! I have been waiting
for these Pineapples for three years. I didn’t get any of them. "Now there
are others about to ripe. If any more of these pineapples are stolen, no more
clinic for you."
My wife was running a clinic. She was giving them all their pills free. They don't have anything to pay. We were knocking ourselves out trying to help these people, taking care of their sick, saving the lives of their babies. One by one the pineapples got ripened and one by one they were stolen. So l felt I had to stand my ground with these people. I couldn't just let them run all over me. But that was not really the reason. It was a selfish reason. I wanted to eat those pineapples. So no more clinics, see if they will let their sick babies die. They couldn't care less. Life was cheap over there. People with bad pneumonia would be coughing and begging us for medicine, we should say, "No! Remember you stole our pineapples. I didn't steal them, they would say. "It was the other guys that did it.
They would go on coughing
and begging. We couldn’t take it any longer. I broke down and said ok, tomorrow
morning we will open the clinic again." When we opened the clinic they
started stealing the pineapples, and I felt bad again. Man! These rascals! But
finally we found out who was doing it, it was the guy who had planted them for
me. I called him on the carpet and said, "Look buddy! What are you doing
stealing my pineapples? You are my gardener. He said, "My hands plant them. My Mouth eats them." That is the
rule of the jungle. If they plant something it is theirs. They had never heard
of the idea of paying for services. So he said They are all mine." I said,
"Oh no! They are mine. I paid you to plant them." But he just
couldn't understand how that made them my plant. I thought, "well, what do
I do now? It was the rule of their tribe. I’d better learn to live by their
rule. So I said, "All right, I will give you half of these plants.
"Everything from
here to there is yours. If they get ripened they are yours. And there are mine.
He sounded like he was in agreement. But my pineapples still got stolen so, I
thought, "Maybe l should let them have all those pineapples, and I’ll get
some new ones." But I knew that 1 would have to wait three more years. That
was hard for me to do.
Finally I said,
"Look, I will give you all these pineapples out of my garden so I have
room to plant new ones. I don't want your pineapples in my garden since you said
they are yours." So they said, "Too-wan, (which means outsider,
foreigner) you will have to pay us. I said, "Now, look! They said,
"No no! You are asking us to move your pineapple bushes and that is work. Now
they are mine. I said, "All right. L will pay you one days work. Take them
all away. Then they said, "We don’t have a garden ready. Will you pay us
to get it ready? I said Forget it’ I was
so fed up with them. I told my wife, "This is impossible -I am just going
to pay some guy to root them all out and throw them on the trash heap, Then if
they want them, they can just take them." So we did. We rooted them all
out and threw them on a heap. That was hard to do. They were nice pineapple
bushes. Then I bought new plants. I said, "Now look, all you guys. I am
going to pay you to plant them, but I
eat them, me and my family. You don't eat any. They said, You can’t do that. If
we want them, we eat them." I said, "Look, I don't have time to mess
with a garden. I have too much to do. There are so many of you there is only
one me. You have got to help me. I want you to plant them, and I will eat them.
I said, "I will pay you. What do you want? I will give you this nice knife
if you will agree to do it."
They started to think.
"He will pay us that knife so he can eat our pineapples. Finally they
agreed. During the next three years I reminded the guy who planted them,
"Look! who is going to eat these pineapples? He said, "You are."
I said, Fine! Have you still got the knife? He said, Yes." I said, well,
take good care of it." If he lost the knife I am in trouble again. The pay
is gone. Finally, after three more years the pineapples began to ripen My wife
and I walked through the garden again. I said, "Man! Pretty soon we are
going to have crop of our own pineapples." We started to thank God that He
was providing them for us, But Do you know what happened? Everyone of them was
stolen! I would see the natives go through the garden in the daytime to spot
where the pineapples were, and then at night they would be able to go right to
them. I thought, what am I going to do? We can't cut out the clinic. Let us cut
out the trade store. " That's where they get their matches, salt, fish
hooks and things like that. They used to do without them, That wont kill them.
I said, okay, no more store. You stole my pineapples.
When we closed the store
they began to say, "we had better leave because we don't have any salt. If
he is not going to have a store, there is no advantage for us being here with
him. We might as well go back to jungle houses." So they took off to live
in the jungle. There I was sitting by myself eating pineapples. No people, no
ministry. I said to my wife, "look, we can eat pineapples back home, I
mean, if that is all we are here to do." A runner retuned and I said,
"get them all back. We will open the store next Monday. I thought and
thought, How am I going to get to eat those pineapples? There must be a way.
Then I got an idea. A German shepherd! I got the biggest German shepherd I could
get on the Island. I brought him in there and let him loose. They were afraid
of him. They had never seen a dog that big. They had little, mangy dogs. They
never fed them. They were all diseased. And there was this well-fed German
shepherd dog. They Looked at the food he got. I would always have to feed him
when the people waren’t around because they would resent the
food. It was better than
anything they got. But that dog did the trick. Most of the people didn't dare
come around anymore. So now we had the same result, as closing that store.
People didn't come. I didn’t have anybody to talk to. I couldn’t get anybody to
teach me the language. I thought, "What do we do? The dog wasn't working.
But in the meantime, the dog was starting to breed with the village dogs and
would raise up a wicked half-shepherd, wild and hungry. The doctor said,
"Look! If your kids or anybody gets bitten by that dog, I am not going to
treat them". He was using the same tactics on me that I was using on the
natives. I said to my wife, "We've got to get rid of the dog." Well,
I got rid of the dog. hated to do it.
Now the dog was gone. The people came back and no more pineapples. I thought,
Boy! There must be a way what can I do?
Then I came home on furlough and went to a Basic Youth Seminar, learned that we must
give everything we own to God. The Bible says if you give, you will have; if
you keep for yourself, you will lose. Give your things to God, and God will see
that you have enough.
This is a basic
principle. I thought, "Man! I don't have anything to lose l will give that
pineapple in the garden to God because I am not eating the pineapples
anyway." Now I know that is not a very good sacrifice. You are supposed to
sacrifice something that is valuable to you. But I would give it to God and see
if he could control it. I said, "Man! I am going to see how God is going
to do it. So, I stood out in the garden one night. The people had gone home. I
didn't want them to see me out there praying. I prayed. Lord see these
pineapple bushes? I have fought to have from them. I have claimed them. I have
stood up for my right "It is all wrong, and I realize it now. I have seen
that it is wrong and I give them to you. From now on, if you want me to eat any
of your pineapples, fine. You just go
right ahead and give them to us and if not, fine. it doesn’t really
matter" so I gave them to God, and the natives stole the pineapples as
usual. I thought to myself, see, God, you can't control them either.
Then one day they came to
me and said, Too-wan, you have become a Christian, haven’t you? I was ready to react and say, look here,
I have been a Christian for twenty years. But instead I said, "Why do you
say that and they said, because you don't get angry anymore when we steal your
pineapples. This was a real revelation.
Now I was living what I have been preaching to them. I have been telling them
to love one another, be kind to one another, and I had always been standing up
for my rights, and they knew it.
Finally, one bright lad
started thinking and said, "now, why don’t you get angry anymore? I said,
I have given that garden away It isn't my garden anymore. So you are not
stealing my pineapples. I don't have to get angry anymore. Another guy started
to think even more and he said, Who did you give that garden to. They looked
around." Did he give it to you? Did he give it to you? whose is it anyway?
Whose pineapple are we stealing? Then I said, "I have given the garden to
God. They said, Top God! Hasn't He got any pineapples where He is?" I
said, I don't know whether He has or not, but I have given it to God. They went
to the village and said, "do you know whose pineapples we are stealing?
Too-wan has given them to God. They all started thinking about that one. They
came back in a group and said, Too-wan you should not have done it. Why don't you
get them back from God?" No wonder we aren't getting the pigs when we go
out hunting. "No wonder our babies are getting sick. "No wonder our
wives are not giving birth: No wonder the fish aren't
Biting." Then they
said, we shouldn't steal them anymore if they are God's, should we? They were afraid
of God. So then the pineapples began to ripen. The natives came and said,
too-wan, Your pineapples are ripe. "I said, "They are not mine. They
belong to God. They said, "But they are going to get rotten. You had
better pick them. And so, I got some and I let the natives take some. When my family
and I sat down to eat them, I said, "Lord, we are eating your pineapples.
Thank you Lord for giving them to us." All those years those natives were watching me and listening to my words, they
saw that the two didn't match. But when I began to change they did too. Soon
many natives decided to become Christian, The pineapples given to God was
really working. I could hardly believe it myself. I started giving other things
to God.
One day my son was near
death and there was no way to get him to a doctor. I suddenly realized that I’d
never given my son to God! So I prayed, "God, I give my son to You.
Whatever you want to do is fine." That was harder than giving God the
pineapple garden! I was prepared for God to take my son. But that night the
fever broke, and my son got well.
The natives began
bringing things for me to fix. I said, "God my time is yours. If you want
me to fix harmonicas and pots and shovels out here on the mission field, fine!
I wasn't getting as much Bible translation done, but more and more people were being
won to Christ. They kept saying, Too-wan has become a Christian. He tells us to
love one another and now he is starting to love us.
One day I was fixing a
broken chair. A native saw me and said, "Here let me help you hold
it." After we fixed it I said, well, aren't you going to ask me for any
salt?" He said, "no, too-wan don’t you remember? You helped me fix my
shovel. Now I help you fix your chair." I thought, "Man! That is the
first time they did anything for me without getting paid for it." Then one day I saw something in the Bible. I
had never noticed it before. And when ye shall come into the land, and shall
have planted all manner of trees for food.. three years shall it be as uncircumcised
unto you, it shall not be eaten of. But in the fourth year all the fruit
thereof shall be holy to praise the Lord withal. And in the fifth year shall ye
eat of the fruit thereof, that it may Yield unto you the increase thereof: I am
the Lord your God"(Leviticus 19:23-25) finally I understood that God
never intended me to eat those pineapples the first year they were ripe! he
wanted me to give them to Him. Then He wanted me to give them to the natives so
that they could see my good works and glorify my father who is in heaven. If
had only done this, the natives would have urged me to eat the pineapples the
fifth year. Man! All the trouble I could have avoided.
HOW TO GET YOUR "PINEAPPLE GARDEN" TO GOD
1. RECALL WHAT MAKES YOU ANGRY
The missionary was angry with the natives for eating his pineapples. Maybe you get angry with your partner for not respecting your opinions, or approving of your activities, or accepting the one you want to date. Perhaps you get angry with friends for saying things about you that are not true or for excluding you from their activities. You might even get angry at God for making you with a physical handicap or putting you in a family that does not show love for each other
.
2. LIST YOUR RIGHTS WHICH OTHERS ARE VIOLATING
The natives were not
respecting the missionary's right to eat his own pineapples. May be your
partner are not respecting the rights that you have to your own opinions, planning
your own activities, or choosing your own friends. Perhaps your friend do not
respect your right to a good reputation or to participate in their activities.
You may even feel that God is denying you right to enjoy health and a happy
family.
3. TRANSFER YOUR RIGHTS TO GOD
Picture yourself kneeling
in the presence of God and putting all of your rights on His altar. Then bow
your head and tell God that you are giving them all to Him. He can do with them
whatever He wants. This means you do not have any more rights to your Own
plans, or will, or possessions, or friends, or opinions or reputation. All your
rights belong to God.
4. PURPOSE TO THANK GOD, WHATEVER HAPPENS
God may see that some of
the rights that you gave to Him would be very harmful to your spiritual growth.
He will withhold these from you and you can thank Him for it. Other rights may
be loaned back to you. For these you can also thank God. Now they are not rights.
They are privileged to be used for God's purpose.
5. USE FUTURE ANGER AS GOD'S ALARM SYSTEM
When we give all our rights
to God, we are demonstrating the quality of meekness. Meekness is yielding our
rights to God. It is just the opposite of anger. Anger occurs when we demand
our own rights. In tact, whenever we get angry it is a signal that somebody has
discovered one of our rights that we have not yet given to God. Because of
this, we can use anger as an alarm system to search out nights and transfer
them to God. When we follow these steps, we are obeying the instruction of
Jesus. f any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross
daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it but
whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it For what is a
mans advantage, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself or be cast away
(Luke 9:23-25
LET THIS MIND BE IN YOU WHICH WAS IN CHRIST JESUS
The principle of yielding
rights is demonstrated by the Lord Jesus Christ when He, who was God, did not
cling to His rights as God's equal, but set aside His rights and took upon
Himself the position of a servant. He lived a life of total obedience, even to
dying on the cross for our sin. Because of this God has highly exalted Him and
given Him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (See
Philippians 2:5-11).
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