New Year's Day, 2017

“Deserve” is a judgment.

What someone deserves, or does not deserve, is a judgment reflecting a conscious or unconscious application of our beliefs about the way things ought to be to the way things are, or to the way we perceive things to be.

Do I deserve to have been born to my parents, in this nation; to have had a peaceful, happy Christmas; or to have a healthy, happy family any more than the people of Aleppo deserve not to have been bombarded and killed or driven from what is left of their homes?  I think not.

Dear God, help me – help us – to appreciate, to steward and to develop Your gifts in this new year and to apply them so that others’ lives will be better for our choices.