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Lessons from the Berry Patch: Lesson 2 ~ Make Sure You are Properly Prepared and Attired

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Drawing of the Armor of God

Roman Soldier Protective Clothing

There are lots of potential dangers in the berry patch.  Sure, it looks and sounds peaceful enough…pastoral even.  You can bring your kids with you and visit while picking a bucketful of juicy berries.  What a nice, safe, productive, enjoyable way to spend some family time! And it’s true!  The berry patch is all of that and more.

However, it is also full of potential hazards…hazards that are relatively easy to protect against if you take the time to prepare, but that can cause significant discomfort if not properly prepared for.

First, there are the thorns.  Blackberries are protected by long, sharp, hooked thorns that seem to always find a way to prick, no matter how carefully avoided.  Long sleeves, blue jeans and boots will greatly aid in reducing your number of pricks and scratches.  They will also help you to be less timid in your pursuit of berries.  Berry pickers who go to the patch attired in shorts, tank top and flip-flops invariably wind up skirting the edges of the berry patch, looking only for the berries within easy reach that don’t require any real effort. Sure, they’ll find a handful of easy-to-reach berries, but they’re not properly attired for pressing in to where the majority of the berries may be found.  These unprepared pickers usually wind up eating the few berries they picked at the edge of the patch while the properly attired pickers finish filling their buckets.

Then, there is the sun.  Blackberries like to grow in areas with lots of sunshine.  So, while picking you will be exposed to direct sunlight most of the day. Fortunately, the same clothes that help protect from thorns also help protect from sunburn.  However, you must still address any areas remaining uncovered. You should wear a hat or cap, to help keep the sun off of your face, and you should apply sunblock to the back of your neck, your ears, and any other exposed areas, to prevent sun burn.

Then there are the insects.  Chiggers in particular seem to abound in areas around a blackberry patch, although there may also be ticks, mosquitoes or horse-flies.  None of these is very difficult to avoid, but can seem downright unbearable if not planned for.  Fortunately, the long sleeves, blue jeans and boots that protect against thorns and sun also make a good barrier against insects.  However, a good overspray of insect repellant is a must to keep the chiggers out.  Personally I recommend Deep Woods Off, or something similar.

Spray a light spray over all your clothes, then a very heavy spray around your waist line and ankles, where insects are likely to try to find a way past your protective clothing.  Finally, apply a light spray over your exposed face and back of your neck.  This final spray is easiest done with someone else’s assistance.  Be sure to close and cover your eyes and hold your breath while your assistance lightly sprays your facial area.

Finally, there is the heat and dehydration to be concerned about.  Early morning is the best time for picking, before the full heat of the day.  However, plan to potentially be out in the heat for an extended period.  Carry plenty of Gatorade and water, and be quick to use them.  Although heat is uncomfortable, it is seldom truly dangerous so long as you keep your fluid levels up.  However, dehydration can come quickly and is potentially fatal, if you fail to replace expended fluids.

Life Application

Many things in life require proper preparation and planning.  In fact, life itself requires preparation.  The whole purpose of childhood is to provide for a child’s protection and provision until the child has matured enough to be prepared to protect and provide for himself.

Likewise, education is preparation for future ability to perform in a career or trade, in order to be able to care and provide for oneself and one’s family.

The same is true of the Christian life.  Too often, we view the Christian life as simply a matter of faith and forget the faith must be put into practice, much less that we must make appropriate preparations.

In Ephesians 6:10-11, the Apostle Paul tells us, “Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.  Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”

Paul is telling us that the Christian walk is full of hazards, and that we must make sure we are properly prepared.  If we are not properly prepared and attired we will be ineffective and exposed.  Like the berry pickers who circle the edges of the berry patch selecting a handful of easily picked berries, if we are not prepared for the Christian life, we will skirt the edges picking up a few encouraging motivational ideas, but will fail to fully embrace the Christian life with our complete enthusiastic trust. As a result, we will not see the life-changing heart-molding blessings that the Father has prepared for us.

Worse, we may fall prey to “the schemes of the devil.”  Like the berry patch, the Christian walk appears very idyllic and pastoral, where we walk with Jesus and all of our cares are provided for. And that is all true.  However, it is also true that the Christian walk is full of hazards which are dangerous, potentially fatal even, to those who are unprepared.

In Luke 8:5-15, Jesus tells the parable of the sower and the seed.  In this parable, Jesus describes three ways that the Word of God may be ineffective in a person’s life, and only one way in which it is effective.  The difference between the effective and the
ineffective is the preparation of the soil.

In the passage in Ephesians 6:10-18, Paul goes on to discuss the Christian walk in terms of warfare, telling us “Put on the full armor of God,” and providing detailed instructions on how to prepare for battle:

“Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.  Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:13-17).

Having detailed the protective equipment necessary for daily spiritual warfare, Paul goes on to emphasize the need for constant prayer, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit…” (Ephesians 6:18).  Prayer is our access to Christ, the Living Water.  Just as we must constantly consume fluids to stay hydrated in the heat of the berry patch, as we go about our daily business in this world full of hazards, we must
constantly replenish our reliance on God, through prayer and Bible reading.

So, before you enter the berry patch, today, first make sure you are prepared.
Put on the full armor of God. Fill up on the word of God.  Then carry Christ with you, praying constantly for replenishment of His life-giving essence.

Questions
(please add your comments to this post):

What examples do you have, from your own life experiences of times where being prepared allowed you to be more effective in glorifying Christ?

What examples do you have of times when being poorly prepared resulted in loss of effectiveness?

In what area of your life have you been skirting around the perimeter of the berry patch, avoiding wholeheartedly plunging in to deeper commitment and greater effectiveness?  What is keeping you from a deeper commitment?  What can you do, today, to either take the next step deeper into the berry patch, or to prepare for taking the next step?

Lessons from the Berry Patch: Lesson 1 ~ Wild Blackberries are Free for the Picking

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Lessons from the Berry Patch

Wild blackberries are free for the picking!

Blackberries grow wild, in Arkansas, and throughout most of the South. They grow anywhere they can get plenty of sunshine and water, and haven’t been regularly mown down. Wild berries don’t require planting or tending. They don’t require pruning, watering, fertilizing, mulching, hoeing, or weeding.

Wild blackberries are simply “brought forth” from the earth, as nature’s bounty, of tasty, refreshing, sweet, juicy berries. You can take any open field in Arkansas, stop mowing it or tending it, and within two years, wild blackberries will be growing in any low spots where water collects, and where there is plenty of direct sunlight. They just grow, whether you want them to or not, unless you are putting specific effort into keeping them from growing.

Wild blackberries don’t have to be bought or paid for. Yes, some farmers charge people to pick berries on their farms. However, generally speaking, anyone who lives in rural Arkansas, and likes to pick blackberries, knows where they can find plenty of wild berries free of charge. You just have to be willing to look.

Wild blackberries are simply God’s free gift to us, a juicy, sweet, delicious gift he makes available to anyone who wants them, with no charge, and no need to plant, water or tend. They are a completely free gift, already made available, with no strings attached, and nothing you can do to earn them or pay for them!

Harvesting wild blackberries requires a lot of dedication and hard work! Yes, they are free for the picking, but the picking includes many trials. If you want wild blackberries, you must be prepared to invest a lot of time, effort, and inconvenience harvesting them.

Blackberries like to grow in areas with lots of direct sunlight. So, you will be exposed to the sun the whole time you are harvesting them. They ripen during June and July, two of the hottest months in Arkansas. It is hot, sweaty work, with lots of potential for sunburn or dehydration.

Blackberries are defended by thorns. No matter how hard you try, it is impossible to harvest wild blackberries without acquiring a substantial number of pricks and scratches. Then, your sweat from the heat runs into the scratches, making them burn with salt. By the end of a day of picking, your hands and forearms will be a mass of pricks and scratches stained dark by blood and berry juice, and caked with salt from your sweat.

The places that blackberries like to grow are the same places that are likely to be inhabited by parasitic blood-sucking insects, such as ticks, chiggers, horse-flies, and mosquitoes. It is best to protect yourself with insect repellant, but you will still end up with some itchy insect bites, by the end of the day. Of course the insect repellant washes with your sweat and sunblock, into your eyes, making them burn, and into those scratches on your hands and forearms, making them sting.

And, because blackberries like lots of water, they tend to grow in marshy spots that hold moisture. So, there is a reasonably good chance your shoes will get so soaked and muddy that they will squish as you walk. And, of course, between the berries and the water, you have to keep a sharp eye out for snakes and other critters.

Picking wild blackberries is not for the faint of heart. It is a project that requires commitment and dedication. Many people will start out for the berry patch, thinking it sounds like fun, just to tire of the effort within the first 15 minutes, and head back to the cool comfort of an air-conditioned living room, with little to show for their effort, beyond a need for a good shower and change of clothes.

Before you start out to the berry patch, you need to count the cost. You need to know what you’re likely to be facing and make sure you are prepared for the trials likely to be encountered. You won’t get a bucketful of berries in a casual 15 minute walk-by. You’ve got to be ready to get hot, tired, sweaty, sun-burned, bug-bitten, and thorn-pricked, if you want a good day’s berry harvest.

Life Application:

Many things in life that are freely given still require a lot of work before we can benefit from them.

Consider a full academic college scholarship, for example. It is a free gift! Yes, the student probably had to keep their grades up in high school and do well on the college entrance exam, in order to qualify. Still, though, nobody owes the student that money. It is made available to them as a free gift that they can either accept or not accept.

However, if they choose to accept the scholarship, it is just the start of all the hard work required to make full use of the gift. The scholarship covers the monetary cost of the education. However, in order to appropriate that gift of an education, in order to own it and make it theirs, they must commit to regularly attending class, to listening to lectures and taking notes, to reading assignments, to doing their homework, to studying hard for tests, to completing projects, and to asking questions when they don’t understand. Without all the hard work of actually partaking of the education and making it a part of themselves, the free gift of the scholarship is of absolutely no benefit to the student, whatsoever.

The scholarship is a completely free gift providing an educational opportunity that otherwise would not exist. Appropriation of that free gift and actually gaining benefit from it requires a lot of hard work and discipline.

Like the wild blackberries, God’s grace is made available to everyone, free of charge. It has already been made available to everyone, and there is absolutely nothing we can do to earn it or deserve it. It is already made available whether or not we choose to accept it, and is there for the accepting. “For by grace you have been saved, thru faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

We tend to think that because it is a free gift that it requires no effort, but this is not the case. Yes, God’s grace is offered as a free gift. However, having chosen to accept the free gift, in order for us to benefit from it, for us to appropriate it and make it a part of ourselves, requires a good deal of hard work and discipline, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). The purpose of the free gift of God’s grace is to enable us to do “good works” we would not otherwise be capable of doing. Having now the ability to do good works, we gain the responsibility to carry them out, and good works are…well…work! Hard work!

Jesus did not come so that we could keep living in the blindness and darkness of sin, while still hoping to escape Hell. Jesus came to transform us, from children of darkness to children of light! “…for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light” (Ephesians 5:8).

Having begun his epistle to the Ephesians emphasizing that God’s grace is a free gift, not of works (Ephesians 2:8-9), Paul goes on to say, “For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolator, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:5-10).

Sounds like a lot of hard work, doesn’t it? Harder, even, than picking wild blackberries on a hot summer day…or studying for an exam! It sounds like hard work, because it is hard work.

Paul explains in Ephesians 4:22-24, “…in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you may be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”
God’s goal, in our salvation, is for our very natures to be changed, from desiring and pursuing self-serving sinful desires to desiring and pursuing righteousness, godliness and holiness. God does not force that new nature on us; He never violates our free will.

Rather, he teaches and guides us in the paths of righteousness, as we are daily transformed into His image. That requires a lot of hard work on our part…but would be completely impossible without the transforming presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts. Without the Holy Spirit, we would not even desire to be transformed, but would be content to remain in the blind darkness of our sin nature.

The free gift of God’s grace is not to keep us from having to work. Rather it is to instill in us a desire to work and to enable us to work effectively. With the free gift of God’s grace, we can be transformed into the image of Christ, something which would have been completely impossible apart from that grace.

So, accept the free gift of God’s grace, so that you can effectively begin the hard work of appropriating (harvesting) the truth of His word, so you can partake (eat) of His goodness, making it a part of your nature!

It is time to start picking!

Questions (please respond with your answer):

Are we, Christ’s church, sometimes guilty of misrepresenting God’s grace in how we present the gospel?  Do we either over-emphasize works or over-emphasize grace to the exclusion of the other?

How can we better present the gospel to give a clearer undertsanding of these points?

Note:  The idea for this series of lessons was conceived several years ago, while picking blackberries one hot summer day, with my sister Melody, on her farm in Bee Branch, Arkansas.  Thank you, Melody, for the memories, the visiting, and the thought-provoking discussions!