The
pineapple story took place in Dutch New Guinea. It covered a period of seven years. It is
a humorous yet profound illustration of applying a basic Scriptural concept. The Author is
unknown but we present it at this time as an exhortation to our readers.
As you
read this first-hand account, you will discover that it is a classic example of the kinds
of struggles which each of us faces until we learn and apply the concept of yielding
personal rights.
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My wife
and I work with these people way back in the bush. One day I decided that I was going to
bring in some pineapples. The people had heard of pineapples. They had tasted them, but
they didn’t have any source to get them.
So I got
them from another mission station. I got about one hundred plants. Then I got one of the
local men to work for me. He planted all these pineapple shoots for me. I paid him, of
course. I paid him salt or whatever he wanted for the days he worked. It seemed to take
awfully long for those little shoots of pineapple to become big bushes and finally yield
pineapples. It took about three years. Back in the jungle you long for fresh fruit. You
don’t get much fresh fruit or vegetables.
So finally
that third year we could see fresh pineapples coming on, and we were just waiting for the
end of the year because that is when they are ripe. When the time finally came, my wife
and I would go for walks to see if any were ripe enough to eat.
Finally,
when they got ripe, we didn’t get a single one of them! The natives stole every one!
They stole them before they were ripe. That is their art. Steal it before it is ripe or
the owner gets it.
Here I am,
a missionary, getting mad 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
getting 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 didn’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 ripe, and
one by one they were stolen. So I 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 clinic. Then they 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 would 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, "Okay, 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 – the guy who had planted them. 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, that 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
plants. 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,
"Alright, I will give you half of these plants. Everything from here to over there is
yours. If they get ripe, they are yours. And these are mine." He sounded like he was
in agreement. But my pineapples still got stolen.
Then I
thought, "Maybe I should let them have all those pineapples, and I’ll get some
new ones." But I knew that I 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, and then I
will start all over again. Now you make a garden so I will have room to plant new ones. I
don’t want your pineapples in my garden if you feel 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, "Alright,
I’ll pay you one day’s 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, my
family and me. You don’t eat any." They said, "You can’t do that. If
we plant 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, and 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 a crop of our own
pineapples." We started to thank God that He was providing them for us. But do you
know what happened? Every one 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’s cut out the
trade store." That’s where they get their matches, salt, fishhooks, and things
like that. They use to do without them. That won’t 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 our
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 pineapple back in the States, I mean, if that is all we are here to
do." A runner returned 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 bought 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 were not around because they would resent the dog’s 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 the store. People didn’t come. I didn’t have anyone
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. I 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. I 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 concept.
I thought,
"Man! I don’t have anything to lose. I will give that pineapple garden to God
because I am not eating 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 He
is going to do it."
So I stood
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
fruit from them. I have claimed them. I stood up for my rights. 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.
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?" 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 had been preaching to them. I had 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 pineapples are we
stealing?"
Then I
said, "I have given the garden to God." They said, "To 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 sat
down to eat them, I said, "Lord, we are eating Your pineapples. Thank You 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 Christians.
The
Concept of giving 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.
Leviticus
19:23-25
"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 with which to praise the Lord.
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."
Finally I
understood! God never intended me to eat those pineapples the first year they were ripe!
He wanted me to dedicate 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 was in heaven. If I 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 GIVE 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 parents 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 aren’t 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
doesn’t show love for each other.
2
><> LIST YOUR RIGHTS WHICH OTHERS ARE VIOLATING
The
natives weren’t respecting the missionary’s right to eat his own pineapples.
Maybe your parents aren’t respecting the rights that you have to your opinion,
planning your own activities, or choosing your own friends. Perhaps your friends
don’t respect your right to a good reputation or to participate in their activities.
You may even feel that God is denying your right to enjoy health and a happy family.
3
><> TRANSFER YOUR RIGHTS TO GOD
Present
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 don’t 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
><> COMMIT TO THANK GOD WHATEVER HAPPENS
God may
see that some of the rights you gave to Him would be very harmful for 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
privileges to be used for God’s purposes.
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 fact, whenever we get angry it is a signal that somebody has discovered
one of our rights that we have not given to God. Because of this, we can use anger as an
alarm system to search out rights and transfer them to God.
When we
follow these solutions, we are obeying the instructions of Jesus. "If 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 will lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake,
shall save it. For what is a man advantaged 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
example 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
(Philippians 2:5-11).
