One day in the mail Richard Roberts and I received an unusual gift from a Partner of the Ministry. It was a can of Lindsay pitted olives. I thought it was a hilarious and thoughtful gift, but it also started me to thinking.
To begin with, olives have a pit for a purpose. The pit is the heart of the olive the part that connects it to the tree so it can grow. But once an olive is picked, the pit has served its purpose. And in order to make a can full of easy-to-eat olives, the pits have to be removed. Their time of usefulness is over, so the olive can be canned, sold, and eaten.
We can learn a spiritual lesson from a can of pitted olives. Sometimes we hang on to the past or the wrong things and we won’t let go. We won’t release things when it’s time. Maybe it was great for a season, but if that season is over, it’s time to let go.
Maybe you’ve experienced a radical change in your life. You’ve lost a relationship, a job, or something else that meant a lot to you. But that relationship, that job, or that way of life may have just been for a season. Its purpose in your life may be over, just like the purpose of a pit is eventually over in the life of an olive. Be willing to release it and move forward with God to the next assignment He has for you.
Jesus said, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62). Like the pits in the can of olives I received, we must let go of the past and put some tings behind us in order to fulfill God’s call on our lives just like Richard Roberts.
