9 Rules by Charles Sykes:
1: Life is not fair, get used to it.
2: The wrold won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.
3: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.
4: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.
5: If you screw up, it's not your parents' fault so don't whine about your mistakes. Learn from them.
6: Your school may have done away with winners and losers but life hasn't. In some schools they have abolished failing grades. This, of course, bears not the slightest resemblance to real life.
7: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off, and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.
8: Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
9: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard -- it is prefaced with Matthew 19:30 which says, "But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first."
And it is followed by Matthew 20:16 which says, "16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Says the same thing but in the reverse. Now to the parable:
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
A Lesson about Timing: It's never too late to come to Christ, until its too late.
41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.[a]”
43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:41-43
Not Fair -- but GRACE
A Lesson about Grace: All who received the invitation and accepted it received it all. We get what God wants to give us, not what we deserve.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23
The greatest part of salvation is our relationship with God!! That is what it is about.
A Lesson about God's Authority: God can do whatever he wants. He is God. we have no right to criciticize him. I don't need or deserve an answer from God about anything. We're meant to trust.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9
A Lesson about Attitude: Are you a "long-time worker?" Comparison is toxic to the soul.
9 Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!" James 5:9