An old miser at last went to his reward and St. Peter escorted him to his new abode. Walking past numerous elegant mansions they finally arrived at a dilapidated old shack at the end of the street.
The old miser asked, "Why am I left with a rundown shack when all of these others have fine mansions?"
"Well, sir," replied St. Peter, "we did the best we could with the money you sent us."
Here's a thought: "Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again." Og Mandino
In a Paul Brandt song "Give it away" we hear: Ready or not, take your best shot cause here life comes. You use what you got, and you got it all when you got love.
But the thing about love is there never seems to be enough when you store it up. You got to "give it away", and that's how you get love to stay! "And when it's my turn to say goodbye, I don't want nothing left to give," the song says.
We are all invited by the Lord to go into the vineyard to labour. We have the assurance that we will get a just reward (Matthew 21), no matter at what hour we join Jesus.
But what can I do? You ask. I like Mother Teresa's answer: "What I do you cannot do; but what you do, I cannot do. The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things. But we all do small things with great love, and together we can do something wonderful."
If we look around us we can see some of the workers who are on the "A-Team". They work ceaselessly, without concern for reward, in selfless service to others. Think for a moment and you can name some of them. It may be a family member, a clergy member, a friend.
Some are sidelined from "active" duty, but opportunities abound. "Pray it forward" is a concept worth exploring. Besides praising God and thanking God, our prayers must be for others. These others, in turn, will help others.
Opportunities abound. Suffering is a wonderful prayer offering. Like incense it rises to God almighty, much like the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross did. Work offered up as prayer is powerful stuff too. The more tedious, the more taxing; the more powerful the return.
From another Paul Brant song:
So if you hear this song
You've got to make a choice
To just keep rolling along
Or to listen to His voice
Since I gave my heart to Him
I have been set free
Yeah, He's made all the difference to me.
