Blackberries Are A Nuisance

It was early spring when the trustees and I met together to compile and prioritize a list of tasks that needed to be performed around the church at our upcoming church workday. We did not know how many people would show up for the workday so we wanted to make sure we had plenty of work for everyone to do, but we also wanted to be sure that the major tasks would be accomplished first. We also were making the list to ensure that there was something for everyone to do, regardless of age or abilities.

We had completed our survey of the interior of the church and were walking around the perimeter of the building when one of the men spotted the fencerow that separated the church property from our neighbor’s hayfield. “The fencerow is grownup with weeds again,” he said, “we should have someone burn it.” The other trustees quickly agreed and began to add, “Burn the fencerow” to the list.

Aghast, I hurriedly spoke up. “We can’t do that,” I protested.

“Why not, preacher? That fencerow is looking really bad, and the point of this workday is to make the church look nice. Burning that fencerow would be a vast improvement.”

“Oh, I agree! It does look bad. No question about that,” I continued to protest, “but we can’t burn it because that is where the blackberry bushes are. We can’t burn the blackberry bushes.”

Having come from Colorado to Rock Chapel, which is located in southern Missouri, the trustees were already suspicious that I might be a closet tree-hugger, and now in their minds their worst suspicions were probably being confirmed. “Pastor, don’t you know that blackberries are a nuisance,” one of my trustees explained, “we brush hog acres and acres of them on our farms every year.”

I continued to protest, explaining to the trustees that these were not just any ordinary blackberry bushes. These were my blackberry bushes, my own private blackberry patch. I counted this blackberry patch as one of the perks of living in the parsonage next door to the church. If they were to burn the fencerow I’d lose my opportunity to pick blackberries. “Surely, you do not want to deprive the parsonage of the joy of those plump juicy little fruits,” I reasoned.

After a few moments of listening to my passionate pleas of amnesty for my blackberries, one of the trustees graciously granted the sought after pardon. “Okay, we’ll drop the fencerow from the list and leave the blackberries for the preacher.” I immediately thanked them for their generosity.

Later, that summer as I picked blackberries, I thought back to this incident and gave thanks to God for preserving my blackberry patch. I remembered the words, “blackberries are a nuisance.” The trustees had good reasons for feeling this way, of course. It is not uncommon for blackberries that are let be to take over entire fields, and this is a problem because cattle cannot graze on the thorny blackberry bushes. But, nevertheless, it was difficult for me to reconcile how they could classify as a nuisance what I considered one of the best blessings of the summer.

But isn’t that the way that life works? Some do not value things that are highly valued by others. As my grandmother, who lives for a good yard sale, would often say, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” But this is true of more than just possessions. Circumstances do not often turn out to be what we initially thought they were, and so what we might view as a nuisance or problem sometimes actually turns out to be a blessing.

I am reminded of the story of Joseph. If there was ever a person who had troubles it was Joseph. Joseph was the youngest of his brothers, but the favorite son of his father. Now that may not be much of a problem if you only had a couple of brothers and they were only a few years older than you. But Joseph had ten older brothers! And to make matters worse, Joseph also had a big mouth! He loved to boast to his brothers about his dreams that predicted how one day he would rule over them.

Now, Joseph’s brothers may have been able to overlook a lot of what Joseph said as the wild dreams of youth. They gave Joseph the nickname, “Dreamer.” But when their father Israel gave Joseph a multi-colored coat to honor him and distinguish him from his brothers, it was more than they could bear. They weren’t going to idly stand by and let their brother’s dreams of ruling over his older brothers come true.

We know what happened next. They took Joseph and sold him as a slave to some nomadic traders and then manufactured evidence to make their father believe wild animals had killed his favorite son.

Now that is a pretty awful set of circumstances, but things got worse for Joseph before they got better. Those traders who bought him took him down into Egypt where they sold him as a slave to an Egyptian named Potiphar. Although, he had unjustly been made a slave, Joseph served Potiphar well and in time gained his trust. That is until Potiphar’s wife developed an infatuation for Joseph and tried to seduce him. When Joseph refused her advances, she responded by telling her husband that Joseph had attempted to rape her in her own house. Potiphar, as you may well imagine, became quite angry, and since he was also the captain of Pharaoh’s guard he threw Joseph in prison. So, here is Joseph falsely accused and imprisoned in a foreign land, and all of this through no fault of his own – rather this is all occurring to him as a result of his brothers’ jealousy and envy.

When Joseph meets up with his brothers later in life you would expect him to be extremely angry and possibly seeking revenge. And after their father died, that is precisely what his brothers expected. They thought, "Now that Dad is dead, Joseph will surely exact his revenge on us." But notice what Joseph said to them…

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Gen. 50.20 NIV

You see, Joseph realized that sometimes things are not as they seem. We may look at our circumstances and see problems, when they are actually opportunities. We may see them as a nuisance, when they are actually blessings. We may see them as burdens, but they are actually joys.

Joseph had discovered this first hand in his life. Sure it was difficult to have his brothers betray him, to be sold into slavery, to be falsely accused, and to be rotting in prison, but he discovered that it was these very things that had brought his dreams to pass. These difficulties were all part of God’s plan to make him the ruler not just over his brothers, but of all Egypt as well. In Joseph’s life the nuisances turned out to be blessings in disguise.

You know that is often the case in our lives as well. I remember one of the first services I held at Rock Chapel. After the morning service I had one of the fellows come to me apologizing for the way his young son had acted during the service. He had cried and fussed and generally just made a nuisance of himself. I assured the father that it didn’t bother me; I just spoke a little louder. But he was still very concerned. Then one of the elder deacons who had been standing nearby and overheard our conversation turned to him and said, “You think he was a nuisance but I think it’s a blessing just to have young people like him here. Those are just the sounds of life!”

What a profound statement! How often have people complained about the noise of children during a church service? But those children are not really nuisances; they are blessings! How many have complained when people of a different ethnicity move into to a neighborhood or begin to attend the church, when really this is just an opportunity for the church to expand into new ministries?

How often have churches mourned over some natural calamity that their community faced – like forest fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. Only to discover later that those disasters were not disasters at all! Rather it had given the church the opportunity to meet and minister to people in their community that they otherwise would not have. It gave them a rise in attendance as people began searching for God in the aftermath, and as people searched for God they also saw more people come to Christ. It was a blessing.

A good example of this is what happened at the Wedgwood Baptist Church a few years ago.

For many young people in Fort Worth, Texas, September 15, 1999, started with prayer around their high school's flagpole. After taking a public stand for their faith, about four hundred youth gathered in the sanctuary of Wedgwood Baptist Church for a See You at the Pole rally that night. Alleluias rang out as a Christian band led the group in singing praises.

Suddenly a lone gunman burst in. Larry Ashbrook killed seven people—Shawn Brown, 23; Sydney Browning, 36; Justin Ray, 17; Cassie Griffin, 14; Joey Ennis, 14; Kristi Beckel, 14; Kim Jones, 23—before committing suicide. At first, many thought the gunman was part of a skit. But they soon realized the bullets weren't blanks and the blood wasn't ketchup. Many of the youth, plus 150 adults and children, at Wedgwood that night must have wondered where God was. But in the weeks following the tragedy, they, and the world, have found that God didn't abandon them.

Drawing from the church's official Web site and other sources, here are some confirmed instances of God's hand at work:

Although the deaths and injuries were tragic, the devastation could have been much worse. Sixty-eight bullets were fired and only 14 people were hit. About 90 bullets remained unused. A bomb Ashbrook fashioned blew up in the sanctuary, but most of the shrapnel went into the ceiling, injuring no one.

All of Ashbrook's victims were believers.

Though it was a beautiful night, no children were on the church's playground, which Ashbrook had to walk past to enter the church. The shooter did not come to the nursery or elementary school areas of the church, and leaders were able to get the children out with very few of them seeing anything but police cars and fire trucks.

A paramedic, Art DeFord, was at church that night and gave some of the victims immediate medical attention, stabilizing them before other emergency personnel arrived.

All of the injured have been released from the hospital and are recovering—Mary Beth Talley, Robert DeBord, 17; Justin Laird, 16; Nicholas Skinner, 14; Kevin Galey, 38; Jeff Laster, 34; and Jaynanne Brown, 41.

Fifteen thousand people attended a community-wide service at the football stadium of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. Al Meredith, Wedgwood's senior pastor, challenged people to pray and fast on Monday, the 20th. The service was broadcast live on a local television station and on CNN. Because Kim Jones's parents live and work in Saudi Arabia, that country, which is closed to the gospel, allowed portions of the service to be broadcast there.

A DJ at a local Christian radio station (KLTY) was able to lead a caller to Christ. The caller had said he wanted what the church members had.

When prompted by a question from Vice President Al Gore, Pastor Meredith was able to present the gospel clearly on the television show, Larry King Live. In the days following the tragedy, Meredith was also able to pray with President Bill Clinton and Texas Governor George W. Bush.

The husband of a church member professed a newfound faith in Christ shortly after the shooting. His wife, Jodi, and three-year-old daughter were at the church during the shooting, as he watched the scene unfold on television. The wife had been praying, with others, for his salvation for two years. She says the shooting helped him realize he was not in control of everything around him.

As of December 1, 1999, Wedgwood's Web site, http://www.wedgwoodbc.org/, had 100,000 visits. The site offers a link to the site of the North American Mission Board (SBC), which displays the plan of salvation in multiple languages.

The church has received more than $100,000 in unsolicited donations. They have established a committee to determine how it will be spent.

Sydney Browning's family has set up a youth scholarship fund in her name. The survivors of other victims have also set up funds in their honor.[1]

So, I challenge us as Christians. Let’s be careful about viewing things as nuisances, problems, and obstacles. They may instead be some of God’s greatest blessings. Let’s be people, who instead of looking for nuisances, look for the blessings of God.

PRAYER:

Lord, transform our perspective. Let us see things as you view them. Where others see nuisances and obstacles, let us see blessings and opportunity.


[1] Randy Bishop, “What Was God Doing at Wedgwood?” Christian Reader (March/April 2000), p.88

God's Blackberry Patch

My first pastorate was at the Rock Chapel Church; a small country church located among the cattle farms of the Ozarks. To say that the church was rural would be an understatement since it is located at least ten miles from a town regardless of which direction you travel. Nevertheless, being the pastor of this church was a wonderful opportunity for me. God gave me some wonderful people to work with, and he taught me a lot while serving there. Some of the best lessons that God taught me were learned as I picked blackberries behind the church.

Separating the church grounds from the adjacent hay field was a simple three-strand barbed wire fence. Like many such fences in the Ozarks, it was a constant struggle to keep the fencerow free of weeds and trees, and admittedly the fencerow was overgrown more than most. It was a source of constant consternation for our Trustees, and occasionally time would have to be devoted to weed-eating, or even more drastically burning off the fencerow.

Along that fencerow also grew a series of wild blackberry bushes. These bushes became my exclusive pastoral blackberry patch. One of the highlights of my summers at Rock Chapel was blackberry season. I love picking blackberries because I love the plump juicy little fruits. I love them right off the vine, or washed and added to my Grape-nuts at breakfast. Of course, they are also great in cobblers and jams, and I enjoy them as a topping for a bowl of rich vanilla ice cream. Even the little seeds that so frequently get stuck in a tooth don't bother me. I just love blackberries.

I also love simply spending time in the blackberry patch. Hearing me say that you might think that I am a country boy, but I am not. Most of my adult life I have lived in the city, and I love the noise and activity of the city. But I am not really a city boy, either. After visiting my hometown with me, a country-boy friend of mine proclaimed, "I thought you were a city boy, but you're really just a town boy." That is a pretty fair description of me. My hometown is Flat River, Missouri. As a child my family and I always lived in town.

I think that is why I enjoy being in the blackberry patch. There is something nostalgic about it. Time spent there seemed to bring the feeling of going back to the good old days. As you pick those berries there is a sort of reconnection to the rural past, to the primitive hunter-gatherer. For me in particular, the blackberry patch brought to mind summers past when as a child I would pick blackberries with my grandparents. These are fond memories indeed.

But there is an even greater reason why I loved spending time picking blackberries. I value the quiet and solitude. We all need periods of quiet and solitude. Even when Jesus was here on earth he set aside time for quiet and solitude. Richard Foster made this point very well in his book, The Celebration of Discipline. He writes:

Jesus experienced frequent outward solitude. He inaugurated his ministry by spending forty days in the desert (Matt 4.1-11). Before he chose the twelve he spent the entire night alone in the desert hills (Luke 6.12). When he received the news of John the Baptist's death, he "withdrew from there in a boat to a lonely place apart" (Matt. 14.12). After the miraculous feeding of the five thousand Jesus "went up into the hills by himself..." (Matt.14.23). Following a long night of work, "in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely place..." (Mark 1.35). When the twelve returned from a preaching and healing mission, Jesus instructed them, "Come away by yourselves to a lonely place" (Mark 6.31). Following the healing of a leper Jesus "withdrew to the wilderness and prayed" (Luke 5.16). With three disciples he sought out the silence of a lonely mountain as the stage for the transfiguration (Matt. 17.1-9). As he prepared for his highest and most holy work, Jesus sought the solitude of the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt. 26.36-46). I could go on, but perhaps this is sufficient to show that the seeking out of solitary places was a regular practice for Jesus. So it should be for us.

I think Foster has a good point. Our world has become a very hectic place. It seems we go all the time. We have tremendous demands placed upon our time. The world travels at a faster and faster pace all the time. Stores are open 24 hours a day 7 days a week. When my wife and lived in Colorado, our bank was open from 6:00 am to 9:00 pm seven days a week including holidays, certainly not traditional bankers hours. We are also always connected with cell phones. Shortly after coming to Victory one of our older ladies was visiting with me in my office when her cell phone rang -- it was one of her kids wanting to know "Mom, where are you?" And that scene is typical for many of us isn't it. Even in those rare occasions when we are alone, we still have radios, and CD players and MP3 players that make sure it is anything but silent.

Now I am not saying that things are bad in and of themselves, but I am convinced that if Jesus needed time for quiet and solitude then we most certainly do too.

Solitude is valuable for us because we need downtime to refresh and renew our energies. This particularly seems to be what Jesus used his solitude for. Solitude is also important because we all need places and times set aside where we can focus on the spiritual disciplines such as prayer, meditation, and listening.

As a pastor, I found the time spent among the blackberries to be an excellent oportunity to pray. It is sometimes difficult in the hustle and bustle of daily life to devote the time that we should to prayer. I think that is part of the reason why Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount...

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen of men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. Matt. 6.5-6 NIV

Countless prayers for my church and its members were offered while I was picking blackberries.

But I also enjoyed being alone with my thoughts while I was picking the berries. I found that time could be used very well as a time of meditation. Meditation is a lost art among many Christians today, but it was not so with the saints of the Bible. Isaac, we are told, would go out in the evening to meditate (Gen. 24.63) and the Lord told Joshua to meditate on his Law (Josh 1.8). The Psalmist loved to meditate on God's word and his deeds as the following verses demonstrate.

I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds. Ps. 77.12 NIV

I will meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. Ps. 119.15 NIV

Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Ps. 119.97 NIV

I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done. Ps. 143.5 NIV

We all need time to reflect on the truths of scripture. We need time to contemplate the Christian life. Solitude allows us to set aside time from our busy schedules to meditate on God's word, character, and acts.

We also need time to be still and listen for God's voice. We are familiar with the verse "Be still, and know that I am God" (Ps. 46.10 NIV), but how successful are we at just being still and listening for God to speak to us? I know that prayer is supposed to be communicating with God, but I also know that true communication only occurs when a person not only speaks but also listens to what the other has to say. I know in my own prayer life there is always the temptation for prayers to become a one-sided conversation, where I speak to God but fail to take the time to listen for his voice. Ecclesiastes warns us of just this thing.

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaen and you are on earth, so let your words be few. Eccl. 5.1-2 NIV

Time spent in the blackberry patch was for me that much needed time of solitude that gave me opportunities for prayer, meditation, and listening. So my question for you is, "Where is your blackberry patch?" We all need such time, and I encourage you to make such time in your life -- to find a place that can be as the KJV calls it, "your prayer closet," or as I have described it, "your personal blackberry patch."

_________

In the posts that will follow I will be sharing several of the personal reflections that I had as I stood in my blackberry patch. They by no means represent everything that I meditated upon while picking blackberries. Many would be of no interest to anyone but myself. Many have been forgotten. And I would be the first to admit that not every journey of my wandering mind is worthy of record.

What remains are a number of personal reflections about the spiritual life illustrated by my experiences of picking blackberries. Each in its own way is somehow related to blackberries, but the greater theme is the spiritual life that God has called us to. I offer them here as devotional thoughts to anyone who may be interested, and hope that they will be enjoyed as such. But I also offer them as an encouragement to find your own blackberry patch, that is as an encouragement to find for yourself a place where you can seek God and meditate upon his word and his goodness.