Life On Our Own Terms? — Thomas Merton

Some food for thought in today’s world where a lot is taken for granted and life is expected or owed to us.

…maybe we want to have life on our own terms, as if it were not a gift but my due. This attitude goes back to a legalism which is terrible, precisely because, instead of making it possible to accept life as a gift, welling up from within, I make it something that’s coming to me, something I’m owed. “I’ve fulfilled everything. Where’s the pay? Where’s my merit?” — The Springs of Contemplation: A Retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemani, pp. 16-17 (Kindle edition)