Faith fruitarians

In the movie “Notting Hill,“ Hugh Grant’s character is set up on a blind date. The friend who played matchmaker in setting up the date has the couple over for dinner, but just as they are about to eat, the blind date announces that she can’t eat the food that’s been prepared. She’s a “frutarian,” she announces. She explains that frutarians “believe that fruits and vegetables have feelings, so we think cooking is cruel. We only eat things that have actually fallen off a tree or bush - that are, in fact, dead already.” And in a hilarious scene, she refuses to eat the carrots because they have been, in her view, murdered.

Those of us who have gone on mission trips often say that when we go, we -- not just those we are there to help -- are richly blessed by the experience.

Now, I don’t want to strech this metaphor too far, but in our lives, we treat God’s blessings somewhat like the silly frutarian in the movie treated fruits and vegetables.

See, the blessings that we receive by engaging in acts of service are the fruit, and God has placed us in a bountiful orchard. And we walk through this orchard, picking up half-rotten fruit off the ground, saying, “Look how richly God has blessed us!” and God is standing there saying, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” If we would just lift our eyes up off the ground and look around, we would see all the beautiful fruit, ripe for the picking, that’s within our reach, and if we ask for it, God will even bring us a ladder.

Well, I finally asked for a ladder.

While I was on a mission trip this summer on the Mississippi Gulf coast, God called me into full time mission work. In about a year, I’ll be leaving the practice of law -- I know that makes me the envy of many of my lawyer friends -- and I’ll be attending seminary, and when I graduate, I expect to go into international missions.

I’ll keep you posted.