Faith & Life

What Do You Do With Your Fruit?

Everything we have comes from God.   The question is what we do with it.

Personal Reflection  ·  Matthew 21:33–43, 45–46

"The Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit."

Matthew 21:43

Everything we have is given to us by God. Everything.

There is not a single good thing that exists on this earth that does not find its origin in our Creator. When I have success in the workplace, that is because God provided me the wisdom to handle something properly. (Truly a miracle if you know me.) When my family has financial success, that is because God allowed the timing of the economy to work in our favor. Everything from success at the gym and fitting looser in my jeans, to stumbling across an amazing investment and gaining a quick profit — that is all a credit to our faithful God.

Now, to be clear: the opposite is not necessarily true. When I fail at something, or make a bad choice, that is almost entirely through some fault of my own. I know that might seem unfair. But the reality is that God is good. All the time. So when something bad happens, it is not God. God can bring good things out of bad situations, but He does not cause the bad things to happen.

✦ ✦ ✦

Which brings me back to the real question. What do we do with the fruit of our labor? And I mean all of it — not just the money we make from our jobs, but the praise we receive for our gifts, the benefits that come from our good choices, the opportunities that seem to fall into our laps. All of it is fruit. All of it came from somewhere beyond us.

Do we hoard it for ourselves, like the tenants in today's Gospel? Or do we willingly and gladly give it back to the Lord?

Clearly, we need to give it back. But what does that actually look like? Here are three places to start.

One  ·  Give generously

Give 1/10 of your income to the Church and to charity. This might feel scary at first, but here is the truth: you cannot outgive God. Give Him one tenth, and the ninety percent you keep will always be sufficient. Always.

Two  ·  Give praise

Thank God for the little things and the big things. "Thank you, Jesus, for that parking space!" counts just as much as thanking Him for the tax credit that covers your child's braces. Gratitude in small moments builds a habit of the heart.

Three  ·  Give your time

Be a good steward of your time. When you find yourself with a spare moment — and yes, I know that almost seems fictional — do you spend any of it with Him in prayer? My own compromise is sometimes watching a religious series, so I can have it all: prayer and entertainment. No judgment here.

Be the kind of tenant the Scripture is looking for. The kind who remembers where the vineyard came from in the first place, and gives back to the owner what was always His.

Give to God what is owed to God. Which, it turns out, is everything.

Which of these three is hardest for you right now — generosity, gratitude, or time? I would love to hear. Pray for me! I will pray for you. 🙏

A Personal Blog on Faith, Life & the Journey

Be an Instrument of Peace

Today’s Gospel is not my favorite – because it is especially tough.  Jesus speaks to all of us about the importance of reconciliation with one another.  Notice there is not a disclaimer about how we should seek to reconcile only if we intentionally hurt someone, or if we may have done something we weren’t supposed to do.   Jesus makes it clear that it is OUR responsibility to seek reconciliation “when we realize that someone has something against us.” 
 
Say what?  This is opposite from how our world responds to injustice.  Our culture today would argue that this is not our problem.  Just leave it alone and go on with your life, or post something on social media and publicly ridicule this offender.  This is how the world often responds.
 
Musician and Monk John Michael Talbot has an excellent reflection on this Gospel where he recalls that approaching the altar of the lord, and realizing that we have something against our brother or sister; well that’s easy – we can go to confession.  But if we realize that someone has something against us, we need to go talk to that person first.   This is the challenging part.
 
The prayer of St. Francis seems especially appropriate for these occasions in our life. Why should we bother ourselves with reconciling with those who might be difficult?  Because we want to be instruments of peace.  Because where there is hatred, we should be sowing love, and where there is injury, we should be seeking pardons.  It doesn’t matter who is injured.  It doesn’t matter who feels the hatred.  We are called to be instruments of peace in every situation!

Epic Fail Again, The Family prayer night...

I know amazing people whose children behave perfectly during mass,  do millions of hours of family service for other people, and participate in weekly or even nightly family prayer time.

Yes, this is happening out there.  Unfortunately, it isn't happening in my home. 

I know, I know. Shocker!  The lady who writes a blog called "Disciplechic" whose family attends two churches doesn't have a family prayer time.  (See me shrugging over here?)  I tried.

Now before you start judging me for judging myself, please know that I am super proud of my family.  My kids aren't terrible during Mass, and we do pray regularly. Usually, it is when I am sighing very loudly, "Lord have mercy" because some crazy thing is happening at that moment. (Think 5 kids explaining their Christmas wish list at the same exact time, and then arguing that they were talking first, at the same exact time.)    But we aren't good at planned family prayer time.

I was half hoping for Advent we could start a new tradition, and really spend this season anticipating the birth of Jesus. But my most recent advent efforts resulted in me lighting a candle, praying for hope, and my 16-year-old blowing it out immediately so that the dog doesn't eat the lit candle.  It lasted less than .02 seconds and I am pretty sure episodes of Judge Judy

Therefore, I decided to give up the idea of Family Prayer Night.  Then the Lord inspired with me a different idea.  Family prayer MORNING.  I know I am sort of an idiot sometimes.   We are definitely better morning people. So every school morning at 7 AM before my husband leaves for work before we take the dog for a walk. AFTER my 17-year-old is out of bed (sometimes not dressed) we spend 5 minutes in prayer.  We usually play a 2-minute video from the bible app or You Version and then read the scripture.  Then we all make a prayer request and pray together before heading out in five different directions. 

IT HAS BEEN AMAZING!

Now I am not sharing this to brag yall.  This is supposed to be inspiring.  If the family with 5 kids and two full-time working parents can do it, I KNOW YOU CAN TOO!