Hey everyone, I'm Dr. Allison.

Today's scripture offers us a wiser way of being human as we step into the day.

I want to begin today with a question that I know made me feel a little uncomfortable even as I was writing it.

Have you ever watched someone receive almost effortlessly, something you've worked

so hard for, and felt something tighten inside you? Maybe it was subtle, a quick flash of

comparison or a flicker of frustration, a thought maybe you didn't want to admit. Maybe something

like, it's not fair. Well, today we're going to sit with a parable from Jesus that goes right into that experience,

not to shame ourselves, but to help us understand what's happening underneath it.

Today's scripture is Matthew 21 through 16.

For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.

He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.

He told them, you also go and work in my vineyard and I will pay you whatever is right.

So they went.

He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon,

he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, why have you been standing here

all day long doing nothing? Because no one hired us, they answered. He said to them, you also go and work

in my vineyard. When evening came,

the owner of the vineyard said to this foreman, call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with

the last ones hired and going on to the first. The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon

came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more.

But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against

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