Reward

 If I had to choose between head knowledge and street knowledge, I think I’d choose the latter. It’s one thing to understand the Pythagorean theorem or Euclidean geometry; it’s quite another to know you should never play three-card Monty on a street corner, no matter where that street corner happens to be. Smart people do dumb things all the time because while they have the head knowledge, replete with framed degrees hanging crookedly on their walls, their street knowledge is lacking to the point that their alarm doesn’t go off when some stranger offers to give them fifty for two twenties because they really need to break the big bill.

I grew up poor, in a bad neighborhood, with few friends and even fewer prospects, and I learned at a young age that you either eat or get eaten. You either learn quickly, get street smart, and avoid the traps the normies fall into every other minute, or you are, by definition, one of the aforementioned normies. This is one of the reasons I believe a majority of America’s populace will have an extremely difficult time adjusting to the new America. They’re too trusting, some might even say gullible, and although being nice with sugar and spice is a noble virtue, it makes for easy prey when it comes to real-world situations that require the wisdom of a serpent.

One of the first things I learned quickly, and at my own expense, is that you always haggle on the price before you deliver the service.

The first place we lived in when we arrived in America, coincidentally the place we lived in for thirteen years hence, had a Romanian building manager who also lived on the property. Since he spoke Romanian and I spoke no English then, it was no mean feat for him to take advantage of my gullibility and use me as a glorified gopher for what I later discovered was pennies on the dollar. From raking leaves to cleaning around the dumpsters because eight cubic yards is just too small a hole to get a trash bag into, there would always be something to do, and I’d get a shiny quarter for doing it. Little did I know that he’d been paying the Mexican kid with the hair lip a whole dollar for the same jobs until I came along.

It took me a while to figure out I was being taken advantage of, but when I did, I tried to renegotiate. By then, a Vietnamese family had moved in, and they, too, had a boy my age. So rather than negotiate, the manager got him to do stuff for next to nothing instead of paying me more. There was a lot of turnover at the Malden Villas. It wasn’t anyone’s idea of the American dream.

Thankfully Jesus isn’t a stingy Romanian. Not only is He upfront about His expectations, but He is also upfront about the compensation. You’re not going in blind, and you’re not doing a job only to be stiffed; there is a contractual agreement between you and Jesus, and He keeps His word.

Matthew 19:27-29, “Then Peter answered and said to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You. Therefore what shall we have?” So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.”

Before we judge Peter too harshly and wonder at his motives, I think it quite commendable that he waited this long to ask Jesus about what they would have now that they’d left all and followed Him.

One of the first lessons I taught my daughters when they were old enough to understand it was that you always establish what the job is worth and what you’ll be getting paid before you start the work. It’s too late to haggle about payment once the job is done. You can’t unclean a backyard.

It took them a couple of times to get it, but now, whenever I need them to do something outside the purview of their family duties, they’re both quick to ask how much I’m willing to pay. I try to keep a straight face but smile on the inside because I know that when they are grown and out of the house, they’ll have this lesson well in hand, and no one will be able to take advantage of them.

We would do well to reacquaint ourselves with what the promise of Christ’s reward entails because, unlike pension funds worldwide, He’s not going to run out of resources or become insolvent. Whatever you do on behalf of the Kingdom is not for naught. Even the minutest of sacrifice is well cataloged and remembered and will, in due course, be rewarded a hundredfold, on top of the eternal life He promised His own.

No one will ever stand on the other side of eternity, bemoaning the fact that they sacrificed everything for God and have nothing to show for it. No one will walk the streets of heaven thinking to themselves that it wasn’t worth the trade. There has never been a more generous offer of a reward in the history of the universe.

Jesus didn’t try to haggle. He didn’t ask Peter what he thought he should have for leaving all and following Him. He didn’t ask Peter to throw out some numbers first or inquire about his expectations. He made the best offer from the jump. An offer so generous that Peter likely had to pick his jaw up off the floor after hearing it. Notice there wasn’t a request for more. Peter didn’t ask if Jesus could throw in a company donkey or more vacation time. His reward is beyond your expectation. Always, and every time.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.