Books by Ian Rogers
Books by Ian Rogers
My wife and I have a large strawberry patch which delights us with a bountiful supply of fruit. The trouble is, even the good things in life can become pressures. For example, this July, after several wet days, I went out to pick strawberries and found myself getting stressed-up, so I started to talk to myself A good self-talking to can often restore perspective and rejuvenate feelings of peace and freedom.
As I listened, I realised that “strawberry-picking principles” could be applied to any task in life. In fact they could be generalised into guidelines for life as a whole. I hope you will recognise them (for they are hardly new!) and can apply them, as I do, to help you through difficult patches.
Don’t stretch too far! There’s always a temptation to reach for one more luscious, ripe fruit; and then another, and another - until your aching back tells you you’ve overdone it – or you fall over!
Pick as much as you reasonably can from where you are! It’s easy to be tempted, when picking on the right, to move further right, when there are lovely fruits within easy reach on the left if only you looked that way. How often in life do we long for something that is just out of reach, whilst failing to make the most of our present situation?
Don’t stay in one position too long! Where there’s lots of fruit, you can squat down and pick for ages. Result? A big basketful of fruit - plus pins and needles and pain when standing up.
Don’t forget where you’ve come from! After exhausting one spot and moving on, it’s amazing to look back and still see ripe fruit behind you. Of course, it was concealed under leaves from the old position but it is now in full view. It may be within reach.
It is true of life that evolution is better than revolution. A small shift or change can yield new fruit but it can also highlight blessings of the old ways. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath-water.
Don t be depressed by imperfect fruit! Lots of strawberries are slug-ridden, bird-pecked or go mouldy before you get to them. Does it really matter? If there’s an abundance, enjoy it. Let the bugs have their fair share.
Even if there’s a shortage, life is more than strawberries; you can’t protect every berry. Give thanks for the perfect ones; enjoy the nibbled ones that can be ‘rescued’; and throw away the rest without grudge or rancour.
Don’t be greedy! Time is short and life-pressures are many. If there isn’t time to pick the whole patch, be satisfied with what can be picked. Let the rest go. Life is more than the food we eat or the clothes we wear. What can’t be picked one day will probably still be there the next. And if it isn’t, so what? Better to have a choc-ice than to have strawberries and angina.
Be generous to others. My wife and I like to give away our first picking of strawberries and other garden produce. It’s like having a personal ‘Festival of First Fruits’. We’re not legalistic; we’re free to eat a windfall apple before giving away a bag of ‘perfects’! We love to bless others and to thank God for his blessings to us.
Don ’t apply any rule so dogmatically that it becomes a burden! Live gently with life; be kind to yourself. Know when to have a break, to take a rest, even when to give up entirely. God is not a Managing Director, looking for more and more productivity from us. He is our loving Heavenly Father; we are his children.
He loves to see us constructively occupied, but he also loves to see us at rest and at play. Most of all he loves to see our peaceful, stress-free growth and development; our yielding up of earthly things and increasing absorption of heavenly principles that draw us forwards towards him.
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