What are Your Pineapples?

Tonight we attended our bi-monthly missionary fellowship. Getting together with the other missionaries in town is very important to us and an important part of our support team. We enjoy the fellowship, the worship, the common bond of understanding, the spiritual encouragement (oh, and the yummy food). Each time it is hosted at a different missionary's house and that person shares a message. For this evenings message we were read "The Pineapple Story" in Portuguese which was then translated into English. Many may have heard it but for those that haven't it is a story about a missionary in Papua New Guinea that struggles with the natives stealing "his" pineapples until he finally realizes that everything he has belongs to God including his pineapples. What an appropriate story and lesson for a group of missionaries. I was challenged. We all have many things in our lives that we consider our "rights". Things we are owed; respect, gratitude, conveniences of life, love, acceptance, safety, fun, things for our children. For each of us the list of what we think we deserve would be different. Yet for each of us the real truth is that Jesus came and emptied Himself of all that He deserved so we could have abundant life. What are we willing to give to God? What are we willing to empty ourselves of for the sake of others seeing the love of God displayed in our lives? What are our pineapples that we have demanded are ours that need to be given back to God? If everyone was willing to lay down their "rights" how would it change those in our communities? My prayer tonight is that I don't hold onto one single pineapple and call it my own but instead lay them all at Jesus' feet and ask Him what He would have me do with His pineapples.