Walking through the prayer garden at Glorieta last week, I noticed a small open-air chapel with stone seats and a pulpit made of stone. Years ago, I attended a sunrise devotional there each day, led by Jess Moody. God gave Jess a good gift to tell stories well. He told us that when the Baptists bought the land and started to build a big retreat center near Santa Fe, New Mexico, some of the locals from a different denomination were not happy. In fact, they put sand in the gas tanks of the builders’ trucks to keep them from working.
God’s people have always faced resistance. Isaac lived under God’s blessing and enjoyed amazing harvests. As he grew in wealth, the local Philistines envied him, so they put dirt in the wells his father’s servants had dug. Finally, their leader asked Isaac to move away from them. In the Philistine’s “zero-sum” understanding, Isaac’s success guaranteed their failure. Isaac did as they asked and reopened more of the wells from his father’s time. Honoring his father, Isaac kept the same names for the wells. What will we do when we face opposition from those who do not yet know Christ?
The Baptists who were building Glorieta had to decide what to do with the opposition of their neighbors. Brainstorming, they came to the realization that everybody loves beautiful music and beautiful flowers. So they built the prayer garden with cascading terraces, a fountain, and beautiful flowers. I still remember those flowers from 1980 when I went there the first time. They also hosted magnificent choral concerts. To quote the song, “The hills were alive with the sound of music.” The neighbors came to the concerts, smelled the flowers, and stopped bothering the builders. Instead of fighting against those who oppose us, we might try this tactic. What if we blessed those who persecute us? Would it work? We won’t know unless we try.
