Suing Jesus
We live in an age of entitlement. The plans of our lives need to happen, and they need to happen immediately. If we want something, there is very little to stop us from purchasing it. Getting in shape, making more money, achieving our goals – all of these are accomplishments that, if we had our way, we would have now (or in the next week) with as little effort as possible. This sort of thought is evidenced in our culture, as found in this article on CNN.
What happens when life doesn’t play by our rules? I love the ending line of the article, “this is not what we had planned.” It’s as though putting time into advancing our education, investing our effort into some unseen future, or planning for a favorable event to occur automatically guarantees success.
Coming out of college, I felt letdown by the fact that I couldn’t make the transition from four years of higher education into the exact job that I wanted. I invested the time, effort and money into my future. Yet my place of employment, while not terrible, was not the dream job I’d envisioned.
How could life be so unpredictable?
I’ve found that these same feelings of entitlement often creep up in my faith. So often, I feel discouraged by the fact that my relationship with God “isn’t good enough”. It is not deep enough, emotionally-involved enough, flashy enough. Even during times when I’ve checked off all my spiritual guidelines for the week, I frequently find that my faith chooses not to move any discernable mountains.
Thankfully, God builds in to us using more impacting, long-term methods. 2 Peter 1:5-7 tells us that we are to “make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.” These are the working tools of a God who wants to see us grow into mature brother and sisters in Christ. So I need to constantly remind myself that God knows better than my tyrannical feelings of entitlement do. And I need to ask myself, am I living the life that God wants for me, or am I listening to the voice of entitlement? God wants to build into me a character that will last, no matter what life chooses to throw at me. And that is more than enough.
Tags: entitlement, plan, Shaun Smith, unpredictable
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