Of the many moments in Scripture where the Lord’s response was on point and silencing to His accusers, this last question of today’s Gospel is a true “mic-drop.” The Lord asks me, as He asks you, “Are you envious because I am generous?” (Matthew 20:15)
The simple answer is yes. I have been in ministry since my reversion to the faith when I was a teenager. The amount of pride mixed with lots of hormones and hang-ups in me led to loads of judgment and grumbling against the Lord and His blessings towards others.
I questioned how and why everyone around me seemed to be blessed with opportunities, relationships, good looks and subsequent compliments more than me. I wondered why I did not have more things to boast of than others. “I started following You, Lord,” I reasoned. “So why is everything not going perfectly well for me?”
Sister, at times, following Christ is not what we think it will mean: that everything will go well and will go our way all the time. This is, at least, what I had believed.
I had no idea how much I was missing the mark. My daily wage for laboring in the kingdom was not to be material gain, external praise, or the fulfillment of a false promise that everything would go well in my life. My daily wage, my gain, my portion was and continues to be the Lord Himself. It took me a long and arduous road to realize that the Owner of the vineyard is Himself the blessing. He is the reward.
His Presence is the rain that comes to fall on us and fill our cup after a long day of work, bearing the “day’s burden and the heat” (Matthew 20:12). Sister, He is the blessing. May He gladden you with the joy of His face (Psalm 21:6)! Think on your blessings today.
LOVING GOD, LOVING OTHERS
A NEW WORKSHOP
COME BACK TO FIRST LOVE
