Johnny Carson once told a story about the time when, as the host of the Tonight Show, he made a joke about there being a toilet paper shortage in New York.
The next day there really was a shortage because all the viewers who had watched his show ran out afterward and bought up extra toilet paper just in case. There was no trust in the fact that people, if they chose to work together, could ration out the toilet paper to make sure there would be enough for everyone.
People panicked and grabbed not what they needed, but more than they needed, leaving others with nothing at all. Remember just a couple of years ago during the pandemic when there was a shortage of toilet paper and other paper products. People grabbed and bought all they could, leaving bare shelves for weeks. This resulted in some people not having any toilet paper.
When people allow their lives to be directed by this kind of fear and self-love, then they will find out when they die and hopefully have the opportunity to enter into a heavenly community, that this is not really how they should have acted at all.
They will shrink back. You see, you need to have a great deal of trust in God and the goodness of others in order to buy into the concept of heaven, and these people don’t. They can’t anymore, because they have learned here on earth that you take what you can get when you can get it, because if you don’t, no one else is going to look out for you. Heaven to these people will be a very unsettling place.
Our landowner in Jesus’ Parable (Matthew 20:1-16) is like God in the kingdom of heaven because God seeks to include everyone. God gives freely to everyone so that each person has as much as they need. God holds up a mirror to the deepest part of our being and asks the question, “Are you okay with that?”
Thanks to Sarah Buteux for sharing this. Thanks to Anna Shvets for the picture.
During the pandemic, when there was a shortage of paper goods, did YOU buy extra paper goods so YOU would not run out? Did YOU ever think YOU would have second thoughts about doing this? Do YOU believe there is such a thing as “The Common Good” in this world?
GOD LOVES ALL OF US ENOUGH TO SAY THAT YOU GET TO RUN YOUR LIFE THE WAY YOU CHOOSE!!
