Gleaning

In the Truth Project session dealing with sociology, a story is told about the owner of a carpentry business. The owner read in Leviticus 19:9-10 that landowners weren't to harvest to the very edges of their fields. They were to leave corners and edges so that the poor in the land could come and glean.

I don't remember whether this man's business made cabinets or furniture, but I do remember that they made sawdust. As he thought about what was left over that the poor could come and take away, he thought of the saw dust. Generally, his employees swept it up and someone else came along and charged to haul it away. The owner made a deal with some of the poor in his area. He provided the equipment and the truck. They came, they swept up, they took the sawdust to another business that purchased it, and they kept the proceeds. They also learned and developed discipline. They may not have made much money, but it was more than they'd had before and they had earned it.


This story speaks on several levels. First, it suggests that we need to think differently about solving the problems of poverty. Instead of someone else (especially the government) coming in like a knight on a white horse and solving the universal problem, we need to think creatively and personally. In my daily life, what do I do or produce or think of that would enrich others? What change could I make that might allow another to grow? What opportunities to do good do I miss on a daily basis because I'm too busy maintaining the status quo? I do not pretend that I've thought about this nearly enough. I can only think of two things I have done that might fit into this category.


About the same time Hurricane Katrina hit the southern coast, some shirts in the store where I work were marked down to $0.97 just to get rid of them. With my discount, the price ended up around $0.79. There weren't many, but I purchased what I could and arranged to have them shipped down to those who needed them. Since then, whenever I find stuff at what I call "ridiculously cheap" prices, I make a purchase and donate it somewhere. I could not hope to donate $200-300 a couple times a year, but I can buy $200-300 (original value) of clothing for $10-30 and donate that.

When I think of where I work, I can't help but think of how many hangers and how much plastic and cardboard the store pays to have someone haul away, or of how many stores there are in the area that do the same thing. Couldn't they do the same thing with this "trash" as the business owner did with the saw dust?


The other thing that I do is talk. Actually, it's a more than just talking because it involves thinking and then talking about the thoughts. Some may think I think and talk too much. The way I figure it, however, is that if what I say causes someone else to think, or if I give them an idea that they can use, then I've done good. The more I think and the more I talk, the greater the chance that I'll say something that will produce that good. What some might think of as verbal diarrhea I think of as fertilizing the thoughts and minds of others. Putting it a more socially acceptable way, I'm casting seeds of ideas and the more liberally I cast them, the greater the likely harvest, whether for me or for someone else. Then, from that harvest, gleanings can be left for someone else.


What does your life or work produce that can benefit others? What change could you make that would allow another to grow? What opportunities do you walk by on a daily basis because you're busy trying to make it through another day? What are your gleanings? What ideas do you dismiss because they aren't "good enough" because they don't solve the whole problem - or because they're not "sure things"?