“If you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home.  For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go.  They will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.  You will trample upon lions and cobras; you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!”  Psalm 91:9-13 (NLT)

It’s that time of year that I look forward to as much as any and likely not for the reasons that would seem apparent.  It is blackberry picking season.  Hot.  Hard.  Sweaty.  Bleeding hands.  Imbedded splinters from thorns.  Alone.  This week’s picking has been brutal as East TN has been enveloped in uncharacteristically hot weather.  Awesome!

I have to say there is probably nothing that has drawn me into closer relationship with my Savior than the time that I have spent picking blackberries.  I don’t ask or know why God chooses this to be my fortress of growth.  The removal of outside influence and the conquering of the adversarial thorns surrounding and protecting that beautiful little fruit, causes my mind to be flooded by the awareness of a beautiful God and those hedges around our lives that either protect or reject.

I have heard the term “hedge of protection” used often to describe what a relationship with God and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives could and should look like.  Equally, I see that hedge of protection actually serving as a barrier of rejection, where we push away the source of life and hope.  You see, most often the very best blackberries are hidden behind those formidable thorns that when lifted up or pushed aside, reveal the largest, juiciest, most ripe berries.  A fact missed by the novice blackberry picker and a fact too often taken for granted by too many who claim the name of Christ.

Please know that I am not pointing a finger nor judging where anyone is in their journey of blackberry picking and/or relationship with Christ.  We all have to start somewhere.  ‘Starting’ being the key word.  How can we finish a race that we don’t train for?  When the coach assigns the runner to the mile race, that begins the preparation for the race to be run and the ‘PB,’ the personal best time being the goal of the athlete.  Similarly when our Savior selects us for the race, we choose him to be our eternal coach, then the training begins.  A training that involves commitment, preparation, an empty bucket (our heart and life) to be filled, and daily steps that draw us closer to him in knowledge and surrender.

As I prepare to pick blackberries the process involves long socks, long pants, long sleeved shirt.  All things that are counterintuitive to 90 degree mornings in the South.  My preparation includes tall rubber boots, a baseball cap then Deep Woods Off sprayed over my clothes, face and all gaps where intruders (mainly ticks), intend to breach my hedge of protection.  As I walk out the door, I carry an empty gallon white bucket that when full concludes my day’s picking.  While that filled bucket concludes my work, that’s when my picking partner’s work begins as Megan carefully cleans and prepares the berries for jam, cobblers, to be frozen for future use, for gifts to others and for the simple, delight delivering eating of those fresh berries.  God is marvelous and his marvels lay all around us.

There are very few people that I meet that do not like or love blackberry jam.  And while so many love the results of the harvest, there are exponentially fewer who want to join me in the process of picking.  That’s okay and I love to see the joy and hear the sweet (no pun intended) comments from those experiencing Megan’s amazing jam for the first or fiftieth time.

“Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”  Matthew 9:37-38 (ESV)

So my question today is simply this; is the hedge around your life a hedge of protection or a hedge of rejection?  There is no ambiguity with God.  We are either all his or not his.  John writes and God makes clear in Revelation 3:16 “So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (NIV). We cannot be born again and maintain the old behaviors that existed within us prior to salvation.  We are now the pickers of God’s harvest.  And that my friend is more than enough.  

The berries are ripe, come join the harvest.

You’ve got this…