walK with THE Wise ~ something for nothing ~

Ever hear someone say you can't get something for nothing? Or that nothing in life is free? That's probably pretty accurate, at least in a worldly sense...

I see that principle at work as I work my way through this proverb:

• I don't know what a day may bring.
• We will carry burdens as we walk through this life - some of our own making and some that others have piled on us.
• Friends will wound us, intentionally and unintentionally.
• Genuine nourishment costs.
• Good advice and good counsel, even when lovingly given, can be painful to hear and even harder to implement.
• In hard times, you must rely on community - implying you've been that relied upon community for others before.
• Simplicity is often a synonym for naivety.
• Growth and change for the better, moving in a more godly direction, requires gently accepting correction, hard words, difficult situations...
• To enjoy the fruit of tree, you must first protect that tree.
• To experience the pleasure of your superior, you must first defend, shield and preserve that person's name and honor.
• The fruit of our life will make clear the investment and direction of our heart.
• A flock of sheep provides and sustains only when work is invested into providing for and sustaining the flock.

We live in a culture that likes to get something for nothing, to reap reward without accountability. That really, rarely, ever happens... but people always seem to be searching for that super-return that doesn't reflect the effort or amount of their investment.

And, we are all guilty of this, at some time or another.

photo credit: jDevaun.Photography via photopin cc

Just as we don't like the fact that our choices have consequences, often ones we don't appreciate... we keep hoping against hope for the sudden windfall that far and above surpasses the seed we've sown. For, in general, we don't always want to reap what we've sown but rather to reap where've we not not sown, or at the very least to receive above and beyond the effort invested.

I know of only one type of instance, however, where this regularly occurs - where something is genuinely free.

And it is God's gifts of grace and mercy - offered and bestowed freely and liberally, at no cost or expense of my own.

So... why doesn't this world, so obsessed with something for nothing, take better advantage of this sort of free gift?

Am I the only one who has ever wondered that? What do you think?
And why?