Comfort foods for the soul (11): Relax. This isn’t your stuffs!

I was sitting with my younger brother in the waiting room of the hospital emergency.
He was kind enough to accompany me.

I thought it could be a long wait so I tried to tell him that it was easy to put his faith in Jesus Christ.
All would be forgiven.

I thought being in a hospital would add to the sense of emergency the nearness of life’s end.
Perhaps he might grab the offer.

To my surprise, he didn’t challenge me, nor ridiculed me, but just said matter-of-factly:
“How can there be such a good deal?
One does all the bad stuffs and just believes in Jesus in the end!
It was just too good to be true.”

Forgiveness of sin is a good deal.
Being able to get it, after a life of bad deeds is really too good to be true.
Because it wasn’t fair.
In his mind.

He didn’t state it but I could tell that was what’s so “too good to be true” about it.
It’s just unfair.
Perhaps unspoken, to those who have behaved well all their lives.

Most people in HK are smart.
If something is too good to be true, it probably is.

That’s defence mechanism at work against scams.

I didn’t get mad at him.
It wasn’t his time, yet.

Worth applauding is the fact that people like him hold to an unspoken norm of fairness.
You work for something!
No free lunch!

This is normally valid.
One weak link though.

This norm doesn’t work because the owner can discard this norm.
Use my Macau root to express:
The master of the casino can discard the norm!

Once it is realised that, it’s not our stuffs, then the mind is freer to grasp a different logic.

It’s not our stuffs.
It’s His stuffs.

Once Jesus told a parable which can now be taught as the epitome of poor personnel management!

A master hired some day labourers (from outside Home Depot if it were set in today) at 9 am, some mid day, and some 4 pm.
Surprisingly at the end of the day, all got the same daily pay.

Understandably, even by my younger brother’s rule of thumb, the one who began work at 9 am was angry.
It’s unfair. 
Essentially they protested.

As I mentioned earlier, no half decent personnel manager would do that.
Impossible to justify.

But anger and frustration would readily melt if it were realised that it’s the casino owners’ money!
Perspective switched.
And it dawned, “It’s not your stuffs!”

It’s such a comforting and soothing realisation.
Blood pressure immediately lowered.
Acceptance of the gift suddenly becomes easier and logical.

“Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you.  Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?” (Mt 20:14-15, New Living Translation)