Growing Up

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!

This is something I wrote a few years ago, and am just now finding the courage to post it. For me, putting my thoughts in print, whether in a journal or on here, is very difficult (this is why I own many barely started journals). There's just something about seeing what I actually think exposed in front of me.

So with that intro, here it is.


If you are a close friend of mine, or actually anyone within earshot and who has had the "privilege" of hearing me spout my opinions, you will know that entitlement, specifically in western culture, is something I have chosen to be my own personal battle. For me, it is the core of the apathy and selfishness that keeps people from their Creator.

Specifically, I abhor misplaced entitlement. An example of this is a typical spoiled child. A mother takes her son into a store, and he whines and throws a temper tantrum in various aisles. The mother is embarrassed, and decides to leave the store. Her son sees a toy he wants, and voices his desire. The mother, of course, says no, and the kid throws the king of all hissy fits. Why? He feels entitled to the toy. Does he deserve it? No, but he thinks he does. Therefore, his entitlement is misplaced. If the mother knows what she's doing, she will refuse the child his toy, and take him home. After various scenes like this, her son will learn to grow out of feeling entitled to things he has no business feeling entitled to.

This is what the western world, specifically America, needs to do. Grow up, I mean. I find myself appalled by the behavior of teens, twenty somethings, thirty somethings, middle aged folk, and even the elderly. When it comes down to it, it is childish behavior. I see older, wiser people admonishing those who are younger, only to turn around and act the same way themselves. In fact, it is more aggravating to see those who have lived far longer than me act like children.

Thankfully, God has more patience than I do. He sees us for the children that we are, and loves us anyway. He gently reminds us, like the mother in the store should, that we are misplaced when we feel entitled to anything. He reminds us that everything we have, be it material possessions, relationships, family, our rights, our free will we have only because he chooses it to be so.

Yet many of us, like a spoiled child, grow infuriated at this reminder. We act out more harshly. We deny the very God who created us, and all for what? Our false sense that we deserve what we want? Why do our wants always come first? Should we not expect to get what we deserve, whether or not it is what we want? Who do we think we are? To act as though we are the center of the universe is a far worse slap in the face of God than many other things we can do. Again, this is the very center of the human problem--we place ourselves as most important, at the center of our universe, in essence, as our own personal god. How dare we?

Thank Jesus for bridging us and our God. I wouldn't be able to stand the sight of me.


You who deny him--what is the cost? What are you gaining? A false sense of peace? Of entitlement? Your own personal control? Are you happy? Have you gotten everything you want, or are you waiting for something more to happen? Are you sitting in your middle class home, surrounded by evidence of your intellect and great mind, thinking you have it all? Or have you given up all that, because you can see beyond material possessions, sitting quite proud of yourself because you have proven to be so selfless--but still feel discontent? Do you have more wealth and fame than most in the world, completely zen, yet still feel misplaced somehow? What is the cost?

He is a merciful God, but he is also just, and he will not wait forever. You choose, your misplaced entitlement, your essentially self-worship, which is merely a shadow, or the one true God, the living Jesus, who created you unique and desires you to simply follow him.

I'm afraid you cannot have it both ways, but then again, why would you want to?

Let's grow up.