Friday, April 25, 2003
Friday, April 25, 2003
I kept my faith, even when I said, "I am greatly afflicted"
We can be highly successful, and still miss the point of being a Christian. Fellowship and
prayer--these are the marks of an authentic faith--a faith of joy, a faith of power.
(Psalm 116.10
NRSV)
Max De Pree tells a story about some highly successful tomato growers in central California.
They were masters at growing tomatoes. They had only one problem. That was getting their
tomatoes distributed across the country without having them bruised. So they set to work and
accomplished some marvelous things. First, they got a machine to pick the tomatoes while they
were still yellow but very firm. Then they put the tomatoes on an assembly belt and passed them
under a certain kind of light for seven seconds. They came out a rosy pink, almost red. Then
they devised a package so strong that they could put a bunch of tomatoes in a styrofoam crate,
and lift it twenty feet high above solid concrete and drop it without bruising the tomatoes.
However, after all that, they discovered they had a new problem: The tomatoes didn't taste the
way tomatoes are supposed to taste. At one level they were enormously successful--no more
bruises. But also no more taste.
Lord Jesus, help me to develop an authentic faith in service to our Father in heaven. Amen.
