Leviticus 19:9-10 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the Lord your God.

When I left you last I had hoped to hear those things which you might have gleaned from 1 Samuel chapter 8 which I had left untouched. It has been a week and nothing has been offered. Rather than returning to 1 Samuel 8, I thought it best to refer to the text upon which I derived my inspiration.

Did you know the root understanding of to glean is Arabic in context? It means to drink again and again, to satisfy ones thirst. Another implication is to return to those wounded in battle and kill them where they lay. Putting those two thoughts together one might see that drinking a well dry would rob anyone who comes to the well from receiving life sustaining water.

God’s instruction in our opening verse is about offering life to the poor and to the stranger. During the harvest, nothing was to be removed from the ground nor from the corners. The primary issue at hand for those two candidates was; number one, that they be present in order to obtain the gleaning while it was suitable to consume and number two that they do the work themselves.

While I was sick I thought of writing some of those items that you could have gleaned. I decided not to do that and offer this instead. The Lord said leave it lay, make them gather it for themselves.

In Exodus 16:16 the Lord commanded every man to gather the bread of life for himself, his wife and children. Who am I to countermand the Lord’s word?

Gather it for your own life.

I have had a severe head cold for this past week. I have not been able to breathe properly and my mind lacks the valued commodity of oxygen to operate at full capacity. Rational thought has escaped me. During this process I had two choices; to soldier on as best I could or to wait until I have recovered.

No one would have suffered at my expense for being less than my best. I had to make a choice and that was to wait. While I am feeling better, I am still not operating at 100%. I am not going to try and act noble about my reasoning, “My Utmost for My Highness”. That wasn’t even part of my consideration.

While my reasoning powers were diminished my emotions were not. Experience has taught me not to trust my emotions. They are the weakest part of the human psyche and most prone to influences of the enemy. Without a clear rational mind to sort the details into perspective, wisdom would fail me and I would not be used to glorify God.

Lately I have taken this journey of discovery as if a new believer, feeling and learning as if a new creature for the very first time. I have covered much of those rational thoughts as I could remember but failed to cover the issue of being sick. There is no point in trying to act all noble. That is would be an act. Being sick or injured is a reality of life and being real in these moments is as much an opportunity for others to serve God as it is for us to feel like a member of the body of Christ.

This is merely a head cold. If it had been something more I would have reached out. Others reached out because they knew my dedication to this service and my missing even one post was noticed. That is the way it should be.

Have you let yourself be known to others?