The Ultimate Harvest 7-31-9

Road’s End, Deep Gap NC

So much of our modern Western experience with each other has become transactional. If we want someone to do something for us, we must often pay them just to show up in our world and then we have to pay them to do whatever it is that we want of them. There is no community building going on between the plumber and myself. He charges $80 just to ring my doorbell. Then the meter begins running from there. My last visit was $300. Often the work is not done right the first time and a second visit is required. Getting a ten minute repair done to an appliance last week cost $87. Recently, to get a round-trip ride to the airport in a seven year old van with nearly 200,000 miles on it cost $360, cash only. There was no one interested in making this simple journey in exchange for a free meal and some gas to spare us this draconian charge. A garage I used for years charged $110 to replace a head lamp - with me supplying the light bulb! A ‘friend’ of mine owns a restaurant and will not give me tap water for free unless I buy a $3 cup of tea. The $8 salad I bought did not count and I was charged $1 for tap water, but the $8 salad did give me free admission to her toilet.

Have I just proven the universe is not friendly or generous after all? Not at all. I merely have ‘proven’ that it smells at the dump and that people often act exactly like people - insecure and trying to feel safe by gaining a corner on those things they believe will give them a sense of safety. People raised in a secular consumer society can be expected to seek refuge in those things they are told give validation and a sense of worth - money and ‘stuff’. All of these incidents I just described involve people who feel the dog of financial ruin nipping at their heels. We live in a time and place where people believe that material largess will give them the sense of safety and security they so desperate need and want to survive in ‘hard times’.

Here in the Appalachian Mountains there are islands of community still remaining; where people are helpful because it is the right thing to do, not necessarily a profitable one. Individuals here may not yet be as fully dependent on the consumer grid for validation and safety as those of us living in cities. The International farm tractor here was given to the retreat center a couple of months ago. This week a parts store gave the spiritual director some gaskets in exchange for prayer! Today a woman offered fine bedspreads for the retreat houses. There is a shop in town that is open five days a week ‘selling’ clothes, furniture, food, and a variety of other things. Everything is free, always the lowest price, always. Wal-mart will never be able to compete with this outlet. The business model for this store is not taught at the Wharton School and I must admit to finding this plan incredible, but I am told it works.

I asked the leadership here about the charges that would accrue to bring a church group here for a four-day retreat. Their eyes almost glazed over and those in charge said there would be a bowl in the back of the room for voluntary anonymous donations. I asked what a suggested per diem charge would be. They were not having any of it and would not give me a figure. I was told of hours of hard work being done and payment consisting of a small amount of fruit. It was more than enough I was told. Management has long since left a transactional operating plan in the dust. My church’s retreat center charges nearly $150 a day for retreats, more than the going all-inclusive rate on many 5 star cruise ships. I’ve never been there.

George Muller is perhaps the most compelling example of living a life beyond transactional models of dealing with others. His journals are filled with thousands of examples of how God provided the resources necessary to raise 2,800 orphans to adulthood in Bristol, England. In a day when virtually every so-called faith ministry makes it a point to use a large chunk of its radio or TV air time to sell resources or solicit donations, by credit card, George Muller made his needs known to no one other than God, never even telling his wife of his extensive fiscal and material needs. It is estimated that Muller handled the equivalent of $85 million in cash and material resources during his lifetime. God supplied his riches abundantly to meet the needs Muller presented in the anonymity of his prayer cell. When his estate was probated, there was essentially nothing left in it. In a day when common financial mantras are about increasing cash flow, retirement funding, estate preservation and passing on maximum wealth to our children, Muller’s business plan would not be real popular today. Sadly, much of his writing went out of print long ago.

I was out walking in the rain today with Scooter, a dog in-training, as part of a spiritual exercise. This dog is understudy to the now deceased Shadow, self-designated retreat dog of long standing. This new dog is going to do fine as he is easily manipulated with Milk-Bone treats and is socializing well with people. During the course of our ninety minute wandering in the woods I came across lush blackberries growing wild along the gravel road in places where loggers had clear cut the dense canopy of an old growth forest years ago. I harvested at will.

I hardly knew that one could get food that was not packaged in Styrofoam and Saran Wrap and did not also require swiping of some kind of debit or credit card. No transactions were involved and all I had to do was pluck low hanging fruit. There was something very pure about this process, not unlike the wondrous free admission now granted at many prestigious British museums and galleries. I wondered if this was how Muller got enough food for nearly three thousand kids. Did he harvest it by getting on his knees and letting God put it down within his reach?

Picking blackberries can be a spiritual education and exercise of the highest order. I reminded myself in advance to be thankful that some kinds of thorn bushes produce luscious blackberries or fragrant roses. Blackberries grow on nasty woody vines with a lot of clingy prickly thorns that grab clothing and skin equally well. Patience is not only a virtue, it is health promoting. To avoid laceration one inserts his hands into the vines very slowly and plucks the berries very carefully and then withdraws them in slow deliberate fashion. In order to detach the berries without crushing them it is necessary make a very gentle even tug on the berry until the thorny vine releases it. Trying to grab more that one berry at a time will often result in dropping them into dense weeds; forever lost to one’s berry cobbler. I found myself digging through dense brush to find these errant berries. They are still there.

Harvesting blackberries is a good exercise in mindfulness. It requires a modest amount of good dexterity performed thoughtfully, with some restraint. “Grabbing for life with all the gusto you got” will only result in lacerated purple hands and minimal berries. It might work for acquiring cans of beer but not for gaining the gifts of God or the wisdom of God. Muller knew a great deal about God’s timing. He knew that God would deliver the goods as needed and gave articulate testimony about how God never was late or stingy. Muller did not hastily snatch things. He could not have conceived of charging draconian prices for goods or services. He simply waited on God and never lacerated his hands or his life by grabbing for things that were not meant to be.

When we wait on God and let Him do the choosing, we get his best, every time - at a very good price. The writer of Matthew’s gospel records the words of Jesus in which he declares that God the Father fully cares for birds of the air and grass of the field and meets their needs abundantly. We are confronted with a bit of indignation on His part as to why we would have so little faith as to not believe that God would do even more for us, being created in His image. The gospel writer records that Jesus went on to say that His father was better at giving good things than even the best of attentive human fathers. The operative word here is ‘giving’. With patience and trust we can gently receive from God those things we need rather that dissipating ourselves with desperately extracting from the world those things we think we want, those things that become odious millstones to us. A favorite quip says the two happiest days in the life of a boat owner are those days when he bought and sold it. Thich Nhat Hahn speaks of the virtue of having fewer things we love well rather than many things we merely resent. God truly knows the difference between our legitimate needs and our addictive oppressive wants.

As grand as the great brick edifices were that George Muller prayed into being and as scrumptious as ripe blackberries might be, there are far greater prizes to be had - those which cannot be bought with a price, those that are not low hanging fruit to be garnered in our own strength - immortality, a place in the Father’s house, eternal community, liberation from our doubts about who we are, the peace that passes all understanding.