Leave it

“When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. Leave it for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 23:22 NLT)

The message in this verse is so counter to the messages in our American culture. Our world calls us to live on the edge, to go the distance, grab it all. But God's Word says, leave space, have left-overs, share. Our culture urges us to not only consume all we have, but to wander into fields we might have in the future and take more from there (a.k.a. debt). But Scripture teaches us to use less than we have so we can participate with God in caring for others. 

I think this applies not only to food, as in this passage, but to all of life: time, engery, attention, as well as money and things. We are not only to leave grain at the edge of our fields, but take a weekly sabbath so we have the engery to bear one another's burdens, leave the gleanings so we can give to the poor. In Psalm 23 we learn that God fills our cup to overflowing. Why? Perhaps so others can enjoy the extra, not so we can slurp up the excess from the saucer.

A starting place in learning to do this is to recognize and acknowlege that the field we harvest isn't ours to begin with. He gives some grain for us to have for our needs, and some for us to have so we can experience the joy of giving to others. Like the mother who gives her young son a dollar to buy his sister a birthday gift, so God gives to us so we can give to others. 

Why? Because "I am the Lord your God." Our God is a giving God (think of John 3:16). As those made in His image, as those seeking to grow in the likeness of Christ, we give. We do not harvest the edges of our fields or pick up what the harvesters drop. We leave it.

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To go more deeply into the theology of giving, wallow around in Miroslav Volf's insights in his book, Free of Charge, giving and forgiving in a culture stripped of grace.