Entitlement is a Lie

Our consumer culture has produced a sense of entitlement which is all out of proportion to reality. A number of years ago McDonalds ads proclaimed "You deserve a break today!" Really?! How would a global corporation know what I did and didn't deserve. Maybe I just lazed around the house all day, maybe I cheated on some exams, maybe I manipulated others into doing my work for me - do I deserve a break if that was the case? Here is the problem - the general message of "You deserve this" is floating around as a way of selling us stuff, but it's a message that doesn't distinguish between circumstances - its general pronouncement becomes our mantra, and before you know it we are living like the world owes us something, that we deserve a break, that all the good stuff should just be there for us - but it shouldn't cost me much if anything, after all, I deserve it.

When I was a child I played in a playground in my home town called Kinsmen Park. The Kinsmen were average folks who formed a service club so that they could provide things like playgrounds for the community. As a child I just assumed that playgrounds were simply there because I never knew anything different. When I got older I realized that some adults put in a lot of their own time, work and money to make sure that playground was there, and that it was kept in good repair. The other day I heard a story of a community in my home city that needs a new playground, the old one having been torn down - but hardly anyone in the community would commit to come to a meeting (let alone actually put in any time, work or money) to make that happen. Yet when these things aren't there we complain - and try to make someone else responsible.

This is one more example of the "It's all about me" attitude, which sadly is becoming more and more prevalent all the time. Sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but it's not about me, and it's not about you, it's about we. This important understanding is getting lost in the entitlement age. Can this entitlement attitude get turned around? Not until more of our media messages are "It's about us - together, each one doing their part, and all have to give of their time, work and money." That won't sell as many products, but it will make our community, and our lives, better in the long run.

Giving in to self-centeredness leads to a bitter and lonely world, where people drift without purpose or direction. A sense of entitlement leads to a life of dissatisfaction, it does not add to life, it diminishes it - entitlement is a lie.

In contrast to a sense of entitlement, learning the difficult way of cooperation and community, of sacrifice and service - this is not an easy prospect, but it is worth the effort. As Paul wrote to Timothy:

They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life. (1 Timothy 6:18-19)