Earnestness and sincerity were plainly displayed in the young face. His heart had been touched by the words of this strange teacher.

He had everything this world has to offer money, friends, and power - yet there was awakened in his soul a sense of need. Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”

In his question, we may hear an echo of own spiritual hungerings, “Lord, how may I obtain peace? What must I do to have complete victory? How may I become holy?” Maybe we have some more personal questions, “How can I be free from anger or resentment?”

In answer to the “what shall I do?” Jesus did not prescribe a new ceremony. And for us, who are not burdened down by wealth or treasured “things,” we may feel that his answer leaves us with nothing to do. “Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven:” Matthew 19:21

We watch wonderingly as the eager, searching gaze falls and the inquiring one turns sadly finally- away. What an exchange! The rich young ruler turns back to his cold, lifeless piles of coin and turns his back on the real treasure and eternal happiness and peace. We may shake our heads at this transaction, sure that we would never be so foolish.

But can we be sure?

Ownership
Whether or not we have a fat bank account to claim, there is some real estate over which even the poorest fight fiercely. Do you posses such a plot? Ownership can be detected by phrases such as: “He can't treat me like that.” “I deserved some credit.” or “It's not fair.”

Our sense of ownership extends from “my car,” “my child” or “my job” to “my rights.” In today's society, practically everything is copyrighted, suing is the order of the day and a huge emphasis has been placed on “my rights and dues.” In the Christian world, books on “Boundaries” have been popularized, teaching us how to protect “my space,” “my time” - my rights.

In contrast to this, God's word states unequivocally, “ye are not your own.” (1 Cor. 6:19) I cannot lay claim even to myself, much less anything else! How then can I ever say, “This is mine?”

What is the Christian to do, then? If we cease to protect our rights, won't we get trampled on?

The story of a jungle missionary answers this question with humorous eloquence.

Nate* and his wife had given up the comforts of home to take the gospel to tribal peoples. But there was one thing that they really missed. Fresh fruit was scarce on the mission field and they longed for it. So Nate decided to plant a pineapple garden. He brought in about a hundred plants and paid one of the natives to plant them for him. It took an awfully long time for those pineapple plants to mature. For three long years Nate and his wife watched and waited. Finally as the third year came to a close, the fruit began to ripen. The missionaries were getting excited. Every day they walked through the field to see if any were ready to eat.

But before they got to pick their first pineapple, the fruit disappeared. The natives stole every single one!
Missionaries aren't supposed to get angry. But Nate got mad. He threatened the people that if they stole any more of his pineapples, there would be no more clinic.

Nate's wife, Linda* had been working long, exhausting hours providing care and medicine to the natives for free. It was hard to close the clinic, but Nate felt he had to be firm. He couldn't let them people run all over him!

But the people didn't seem to care. They let their babies die and went right on stealing the pineapples. Sick people came begging for help and Nate and Linda just couldn't keep turning them away. They reopened the clinic.

Then Nate found out who was stealing the pineapples. It was his gardener! When he took him to task for it, the wily native said, “My hand planted them. I eat them!” This is the rule of the jungle.

Well, Nate decided he better play by jungle rules, so he uprooted those plants, threw them away and bought more pineapples. It was a pretty hard for him to throw away those plants. They were nice plants and now he would have another three years to wait.

This time, when he hired a man to plant them, he laid down the rules carefully. “You plant them, but my family and I eat them. You don't eat any, okay?” The native argued with that, until Nate pulled out a fancy sharp knife and offered it in payment.

But when the three years had passed and the fruit began to ripen, they once again began to disappear. Once again, Nate was furious. This time he decided to close down the trade store, where the natives got their salt and such things.

That worked - too well. The natives said “What is the use of us hanging around anymore?” and they moved back into the jungle. So Nate ate his pineapples alone.

Now he was a missionary without anyone to talk with or preach to. He said to Linda, “We might as well go home, if all we are here to do is eat pineapples!” So they reopened the trade store and the people returned. More pineapples disappeared.

The time came for Nate and Linda to return home on furlough. There, they attended a seminar on giving everything you own to God. Nate thought of his pineapple garden. “Well, I've got nothing to lose,” he thought. “I'm not getting any pineapples anyway.”

Back in the jungle, he knelt down beside his precious pineapple plants and told God that he was giving up his rights to those pineapples. “Now they're Yours, God,” he prayed. “If you want us to eat them, fine. But if you don't, that's fine, too.”

Once again, the pineapples got stolen. But this time Nate didn't get mad. And the natives noticed.

“Too-wan,”1 they said, “you have become a Christian.” Nate felt like telling them that he had been a Christian for twenty years already, but instead he asked them, “Why do you say that?”

“You didn't get angry with us when we stole your pineapples.”

What a revelation that was! All these years, Nate had been telling them to be kind to each other, while all the while he had been guarding his rights and getting angry.

But soon they had another question, “Why aren't you angry anymore, Too-wan?”

“Because those pineapples aren't mine,” he told them triumphantly. “I gave them to God.”

That did it! The people were afraid to steal from God. And the pineapples finally started to ripen. This time, Nate and his family were able to pick and eat those pineapples. They ate some and they gave some to the natives. And finally, many of the natives began to give their lives to Christ and were converted.

Nate realized that this principle of giving everything to God really worked and he started giving other things to God.

The natives started bringing their trinkets for Nate to fix. He wasn't getting much translation work done anymore, but he said, “My time is Yours, Lord, and if You want me fixing tables, chairs and harmonicas, fine.” One day he was fixing a chair, when a native stopped and offered to hold it for him. After they finished, Nate said, “Well, aren't you going to ask me for some salt?”

“No,” the man replied, “Remember? you fixed my shovel last week, now I help you fix your chair." Nate stared back in shock. It was the first time the natives had done anything for him without asking for pay. The people started saying, “Too-wan always told us to love each other, and now he has started to love us!"

What is your pineapple?
Search your heart and ask God to reveal to you what it is that you are still hanging on to. When the natives denied him his right to eat his own pineapples, Nate got angry.

Maybe someone has hurt you by demanding your time, not respecting your opinions or ignoring you. You can use these feelings of hurt or anger as God's alarm system. Recognize that He is revealing an area of your life that you have not yet surrendered. Give those rights over to him, with the feelings of resentment or pain. He can and will give you the grace to accept the situation and love for the one who hurt you. You need only surrender and ask for the change.

Of Christ it was prophesied that he would “bind up the brokenhearted... proclaim liberty to the captives... comfort all that mourn... to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.” Isaiah 61:1, 3

Christ offers each one of us the garment of praise, his own robe of righteousness, but we cannot receive it while we are occupied with defending our rights or our heart is full of resentment.

Give all of your rights to God. Tell Him that both yourself, everything you are and all you own, is His to do whatever He sees best with. Purpose to thank God whatever happens. He may remove some rights from you, because He sees that they would harm you. Thank Him for this. Others He may loan you. Thank Him for these, too, but remember that they are not your rights, but privileges to be used in glorifying Him. Consult Him about how He wants them used.

An Example
A tenth part (the tithe) of all we earn is set aside as God's. In doing this, we are not giving God ten percent of our income, but acknowledging that all our money is His. A friend shared how remembering this stopped him in his tracks on a purchase. He said, “I thought to myself, if Jesus was physically standing here beside me, would I ask Him to give me some money to buy this?”

Have you given your "pineapple" to God?

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