“Art of Gleaning” by Mark Batterson
eric posted on June 19, 2009
“I’m going out to glean among the sheaves.” Ruth 2:2
Lead pastor of North Community Church
This is one of the most significant decisions in the Old Testament.
Let me explain.
As I read the book of Ruth this morning I was so impacted by Ruth’s willingness to glean. Gleaning was good old-fashioned manual labor: gathering leftover crops after a field had already been harvested. In a sense, it was the ancient welfare system. But it wasn’t a free hand-out. It was back-breaking work. And it took a spirit of humility. There was nothing glamorous about gleaning. But Ruth was willing to do it.
Can I borrow that metaphor? Leaders are gleaners. They glean everything they can from everyone they can! It harkens back to something that has been attributed to everyone from Ben Franklin to Thomas Carlye to Ralph Waldo Emerson. I’m not sure who said it first, but it’s such good advice: “Every man is my superior in some way, in that I learn of him.”
Back to Ruth.
You know the rest of the story. Boaz sees that Ruth has been working since sun up. Some people are attracted to people because of their personality or their physique. For Boaz, it was Ruth’s work ethic. Long story short, they fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after. Oh yeah, and her Great Grandson, a shepherd named David, becomes King of Israel.
Here’s how I see it: David owes His existence to a Great Grandmother that was willing to glean. Those who glean will one day rule kingdoms. Or their Great Grandchildren will.
Glean everything you can from everyone you can!
Filed Under Uncategorized | 3 Comments
Leave a Comment
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
Mark great points. You are right there is nothing glamorous about gleaning, but we must. Boaz is not the only one who is impressed by work ethic. We’ve all heard faith without works is dead and that being said I’m sure we can all point to times in our lives where we had to glean, put our faith to work, and watch God bless. Ruth probably thought that she had hit the jackpot with Boaz but God had a much much bigger jackpot in mind as you state.
Thanks for letting us glean from you.
http://www.twitter.com/atibadesouza
It reminds me of Emma Lazarus very famous poem which welcomes the tired and poor. America gleaned from Europe…the wretched became the spirit of our country. Thank you for the blog.
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door
Even as Ruth was picking up in the field she saw gleaning as God’s provsion and God’s provision call’s us to be humile. If we become full of pride we will not view gleaning as the purseverance of those who are seeking God’s provision. In fact the Lord gives even when it is gleaning but we tend to judge those who have to glean as failure’s There are those who work hard but seem to get the short end of the stick. I think of the movie the “Pursuit of Happiness”, it ends well for him but how many never see this ending? If we live as followers, true follwers we take one day at a time in the way God hands it to us. We must choose to be teachable, moldable, and willing to hold it all loosely. I watch for those who hold on to the passion of what they are here to do, they never give up and never give in for they learn to live in the heart of their pain and keep doing what is right. To understand that life gives us the chance to glean all around us we must watch for the chance to be the act of giving rather than taking.