{"id":7280,"date":"2021-09-26T16:04:01","date_gmt":"2021-09-26T06:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=7280"},"modified":"2021-09-26T16:08:10","modified_gmt":"2021-09-26T06:08:10","slug":"open-hands-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/open-hands-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Hands"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Open Hands<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Story<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>A wild\nhorse appeared one day and made its home in a farmer\u2019s field. \u201cHow lucky you\nare to have acquired such a fine horse for nothing!\u201d said his neighbours.\n\u201cMaybe, maybe not,\u201d replied the farmer.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The\nfarmer\u2019s son, his only help around the farm, tried to ride the horse. It threw\nhim, breaking his legs. \u201cHow unlucky for you,\u201d chorused the neighbours. \u201cMaybe,\nmaybe not,\u201d replied the farmer.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>His son\nwas left behind when the emperor\u2019s soldiers arrived in the village to conscript\nall the young, able-bodied men into the army, many of whom would die in the\nwar. Meanwhile, the wild horse ran away. \u201cHow unfortunate!\u201d cried the\nneighbours. \u201cMaybe, maybe not,\u201d said the farmer.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The horse\nreturned to the field, bringing his entire herd with him. \u201cWhat good fortune!\u201d\nexclaimed the neighbours. \u201cMaybe, maybe not,\u201d reflected the wise farmer.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The message is simple: hold your possessions in life very loosely because you don\u2019t know when they will be taken from you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Question<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Is there a difference between giving something up willingly and Christ <em>taking<\/em> something from you? How are each perceived in the eyes of the Lord?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Quote<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><em>We must be willing to part with the \u201cthings\u201d of this world whenever we are asked for them. If we find our hearts unwilling to part with anything, then there is improper attachment. If we find our minds being consumed by anything material, then there is improper attachment. If we find we get envious and jealous of our neighbours, then there is improper attachment. If we find ourselves being disturbed by the loss of material \u201cthings\u201d, then there is improper attachment. In short, whenever we want to do anything just to bring pleasure to ourselves, then there is improper attachment. Hold all things with an open hand.<\/em><\/p><cite><em>St John of the Ladder<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Open Hands Story A wild horse appeared one day and made its home in a farmer\u2019s field. \u201cHow lucky you are to have acquired such a fine horse for nothing!\u201d said his neighbours. \u201cMaybe, maybe not,\u201d replied the farmer. The farmer\u2019s son, his only help around the farm, tried to ride the horse. It threw &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/open-hands-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Open Hands&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[357],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-small-groups"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7280"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7284,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7280\/revisions\/7284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}