Are you a plum…or a banana?
Oscar Wilde once said, “Be yourself, everyone else is taken.” Great advice for you and me as we navigate a world of often-picky fruit lovers.
If you are the world’s finest plum and someone you love does not like plums, you have the choice of becoming a banana. But you must be warned that if you choose to become a banana, you will be a second-rate banana. But you can always be the best plum. ~ Leo Buscaglia
We talk a lot about “freedom” around the FREEDOM TOUR. I hope one kind of freedom folks experience when they hang out with us is the freedom to be themselves, the unique individual God created. I hope the folks in our circle don’t try to be plums, or bananas, or oranges, because that’s what someone else seems to value.
When we try to turn everyone into apples because we happen to like apples, we’re kinda trying to be God, making others in our image. When we turn away anyone who isn’t a peach because we’re sure God doesn’t like peaches, we turn away Jesus…He tends to hang out with the rejected fruit.
The kids at the HOME OF HOPE were told, initially, that they were worthless, useless, hopeless fruit, cast into the garbage dump of sexual slavery. Jesus now tells each of them, and each of us, that we’re loved and valued beyond what we can imagine.
We can’t earn that love by trying to become what we think is God’s preferred fruit (He loves them all!) or by polishing up our appearance. We can only respond by reflecting His love, by loving, welcoming, and serving *everyone* with no agenda.
Fruit salad.