Good morning ma’am! Good morning doctor! A few hours ago I went to the supermarket to buy some things that we were needing at home. As soon as I finished and was walking away from the cash register, I looked at the receipt (as I usually do for no reason other than to check if there were items on it that I did not intend to buy, or if I had been charged with something I did not want).To my surprise, I realized that I had not been charged… for the sugar.

I immediately turned around to the cashier and said “hey, you didn’t charge me for the sugar”. Wiith surprise on her face, she said “wow! It’s true. How could that have happened? You’re a very honorable guy!”

I payed for the sugar (though fighting thoughts that maybe, just maybe, God was letting me keep that money), and said goodbye to her as she repeated: “You’re a very honorable guy!”

And then it happened: I felt good. I admit it. Actually, it felt quite good. But being a rational rat as I am, when I came out the door I thought: “Why should I feel good about something that I’m supposed to do anyway? Do I feel good because of what she told me? (I then realized this wasn’t so) Maybe I feel good because it’s something that few people, or maybe even nobody, actually does? Should I feel satisfaction for doing something that I’m supposed to do?”

A couple of months back, while I was reading the passage about the sheep and the goats (Mat 25), I realized that those who had done well hadn’t even realized it. “When Lord?” However, so many of our good works are performed more for the sake of the experience, personal satisfaction, and self-gratification, than to just simply do what we should do. Making the right choices should be our natural attitude, and it shouldn’t surprise us when we do the right thing, because in the end, it is simply what we’re supposed to do.

Maybe a life of total guaranteed satisfaction is one that moves on with body and mind toward what is right?

Good-bye ma’am! Good-bye doctor!