{"id":21625,"date":"2022-09-02T09:55:43","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T13:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21625"},"modified":"2022-09-02T10:00:10","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T14:00:10","slug":"everything-is-a-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21625","title":{"rendered":"Everything Is a Gift"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xOgAmQvOUM0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard\npreaches about Jesus\u2019 invitation to undeserved mercy, a worldview at odds with\nour entire economic system. <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-fkitrjk-tlkrijkrdu-y\/\"><em>Click\nhere to read the Gospel passage<\/em><\/a><em> (Matthew 20:1\u201316).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another familiar parable is the story of laborers who\narrive at the last hour and get paid as much as the ones that began work at the\nfirst hour. Let\u2019s be honest: None of us who are \u201cworker-bees\u201d appreciate this\nstory. All of us would think that if we bore the burden of the day\u2019s heat\nworking than we would deserve more than someone else. Yet this passage makes it\nclear that the landowner promised them what was fair, they agreed to the deal,\nand he gave them the usual wage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>We call this reaction a sense of entitlement. Many Americans have it, especially if we grew up rather comfortable. When we grow up comfortable, we think we <\/strong><em><strong>deserve<\/strong>. <\/em>We think we have a special right. We would be offended if we didn\u2019t get our bonus or our raise. <strong>We all think we deserve just a bit <\/strong><em><strong>more<\/strong><\/em><strong>; this really creates a high degree of unhappiness and anger in our society. Of course, Jesus always turns everything on its head, <\/strong>ending with the punch line: \u201cThose that you think are the last might well be first\u201d (Matthew 20:16). We\u2019d better be ready to be surprised. <strong>The way most of us measure things\u2014especially if we are privileged and comfortable\u2014demonstrates that we might in fact not love God at all, but just ourselves.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>There\u2019s only one way to get us out of this meritocracy and entitlement. Once in our lives we have to experience undeserved love at a deep, gut level. Where we didn\u2019t merit it, we weren\u2019t worthy of it; in fact we were unworthy of it, and we got it anyway.<\/strong> That\u2019s called mercy. <strong>Only the experience of divine mercy breaks down this entire way of counting.<\/strong> And that\u2019s what we do\u2014we\u2019re all <em>counters. <\/em>We are! We think to ourselves, \u201c<strong>You gave this much, so you deserve this much.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>E<strong>very such expectation is a resentment waiting to happen. <\/strong>When we expect, we\u2019re soon going to resent it when we don\u2019t get what we think we deserve. So, what <strong>the Gospel says is \u201cStop expecting!\u201d<\/strong> <strong>Entitlement is lethal for the soul. <\/strong><em><strong>Everything is a gift<\/strong><\/em><strong>\u2014one hundred percent pure gift.<\/strong> The reason any of us woke up this morning had very little to do with us and everything to do with God. <strong>All twenty-four hours today are total gift. And so, the only real prayer is to say \u201cThank you!\u201d <\/strong>and to keep saying it. <strong>When our prayer is constantly \u201cThank you,\u201d and we know we deserve nothing, and that everything is a gift, we stop counting. Only when we stop counting and figuring out what we deserve, will we move from the world of merit into the wonderful world of grace. And in the world of grace, everything is free.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Young&#8230;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Live day by day, dependent and surrendered in Me. <\/strong>Whether you succeed or fail in your daily activities; being surrendered your perspective changes. <strong>You see miracles and possibilities <\/strong>knowing My plans for you are superior. Living in Me is the ultimate daily adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2 Corinthians 12:9-10  <br>But he said to me, \u201c<strong>My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.<\/strong>\u201d. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ\u2019s power may rest on me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Acts 17:28  <br><strong>For in him we live, and move, and have our being<\/strong>. The natural life which men live is from God; and they are supported in it by him; and from him they have \u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Colossians 2 6-7  <br><strong>So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him<\/strong>, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, \u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John 14:20  <br>On that day<strong>\u00a0you will\u00a0realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me<\/strong>, and I am in you. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Father Richard preaches about Jesus\u2019 invitation to undeserved mercy, a worldview at odds with our entire economic system. Click here to read the Gospel passage (Matthew 20:1\u201316). Another familiar parable is the story of laborers who arrive at the last hour and get paid as much as the ones that began work at the first [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21625"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21628,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21625\/revisions\/21628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}