Have you ever heard or came across this story “Work Like You Don’t Need the Money”?

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house-building business & live a more leisurely life with his wife& his extended family.

He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go & asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work anymore. He resorted to shoddy workmanship & used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career.

When the carpenter finished his work , the employer came to inspect the house. He handed the front-door key to the carpenter & said, “This is your house, my gift to you.”

The carpenter was shocked!! What a shame!! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so much differently.

Many times, life would bring us to situation/s which we do not understand as it happens. At times, we feel that situations would ask us to do things which we cannot determine “what it is for”. Sometimes too, we would give that denying reaction: “why me”?

Sometimes, we are like this carpenter in real life. Because we feel that what we are asked to do is quite immaterial with what we want, we would resort to careless actions, putting less than our best into what we are doing; not minding much to strive to understand the things which we should value. The reactions that we give, just like Peter’s reaction in our Gospel for today, would make it more difficult for us to comprehend what we do not fully understand.

As this new series intend to tell us that “The miracle of God requires the action of man!”, let us be pre-cautioned by the carpenter’s tendency in this story where his substandard actions brought him the shock that he will have to live in the house which he built so carelessly.

When as of yet, we do not understand what things are for, let us instead have “the mind of Christ” while we are in the carpentry process: carry what it is that life is asking us to carry, deny our self-intentions while DISCERNing what the Holy Spirit is urging us to do, and just keep on giving out our best while we hammer each nail to build the house that we want to enjoy living-in.

We might be carrying the cross which Jesus wants us to carry while denying ourselves of our human desires; yet, if we will set our mind to that of Christ’s, we will soon enjoy the abundance that has been reserved for us as “a gift”! — sunset

credits to thinkexist.com & heartwarmingstories.net for the lines “Work like you don’t need the Money”

Building Your House (indomurah.wordpress.com)
Keep it simple! (livingmoreabundantly4christ.com)
Jesus the Carpenter (ariannacristina.com)

Shall we not have the “mind of Christ” when Carpentry Matters?

LSS …. We sometimes have the tendency for this…..last song syndrome.

Last heard song keeps on playing in mind, keeps on singing about. Whoever hears us singing the same song over and over again, would give us the reaction.. “unli-unli?… paulit-ulit!”

More often than not, whatever it is that we usually hear retains in us and eventually becomes our pattern of action. The words that we always hear become the same words that we use when we talk. Even more, the song which conquers our ears usually influence our mind set. In effect, we would hate even our selves..bakit naman kasi, “masyadong matalas pandinig natin!”

However, it’s not actually how sharply we hear. Instead, its because we do not know how to filter what we’ve heard. Nevertheless, wouldn’t it be more or a problem if we hear “nothing at all”!

Sometimes we don’t hear anything because we’re not actually ready to listen. Sometimes, we just get used to whatever noise that’s why, even if somebody has been calling us for quite some time, we still seem to be deaf — until eventually we totally become hearing-impaired all because we opted to be one!

When Jesus healed the deaf man sighted in the gospel of Mark 7:31-37, He did not only treat the ears; He also treated the tongue. Ganon pala, when we do not hear anything, our speech is also affected. Good that His distress was felt by Jesus.

Pondering on this, how many of us would know that somebody is in distress when they don’t have the capability to air their discomfort. If we are the deaf man, how much humility should we exert for us to ask for help? And if we take the part of Jesus being sensitive to the needs of others, how would we behave if others would also expect more from us? :)sunset