Bo Chancey

An enormous sense of entitlement is one of the greatest struggles that our generation is facing.  I read an article recently in a business journal about the emerging work force.  The basic premise of the article was that as Baby-boomers are retiring it is leaving a vast hole in the workplace that must be filled by new college graduates.  The chief problem that employers face however is the overwhelming sense of entitlement this new generation possesses. 

New workers are refusing to enter the workforce unless their high dollar salary demands are met.  Entitlement is so strong for many that they would rather live in their parent’s basement well past the age of 30 than take a position for less than they feel they are worth.  Company loyalty is a thing of the past as workers quickly jump from job to job looking for ever-inflating salaries.  The work ethic has also diminished greatly as individuals believe they are above certain tasks or duties.  Without constant praise, this generation of workers simply shut down and refuses to work. 

Entitlement isn’t just an issue in the workforce.  It also impacts the spiritual realms as well.  Many Christians in our culture have taken the “American dream”, a gross sense of entitlement, and a smattering of the gospel message and mixed it all together to form a nasty perversion of scripture.  What comes out is a message that in its rawest form essentially says, “If you obey Jesus, He owes you material blessing”.  In other words, go to church, say your prayers, give some money and then Jesus owes you the “Good Life”.  Those who place their faith in this kind of false hope find disastrous results when they do not get what they feel they deserve. 

Entitlement makes us overly concerned with what others possess.  We fall into the temptation of comparing ourselves to others and then questioning why things aren’t fair.  It is an extremely childish attitude.  Fair is something we do not want anyway.  We must remember what our sin has earned us.  The wages of sin is death.  If God were fair with us there would be no grace. 

God is not fair in the sense that many want Him to be.  The world is never fair and honestly life just isn’t fair!  We must put aside our notions of fairness and simply do what is right.  When I was a student minister I was not fair.  I would let one student do something that I would not allow another to do.  Instead of simply making rules that everyone had to follow, I had different rules for different students.  I did this because I recognized that some kids could handle things that others could not.  God recognizes the same with us and He gives however He chooses.    

We would all do well to replace entitlement with thankfulness.   We spend too much time thinking about what we believe we deserve and not enough time being thankful for what we are given.  All of us who know Christ Jesus have much to be thankful about, so much in fact that our entire lives ought to be lived out in thankfulness.  Think about how our churches would be transformed if Christians lost the entitlement and returned to thankfulness.  Unfortunately though, most do not return to Jesus to offer proper gratitude.  Who does your life most closely resemble in this story from Luke 17?

Luke 17:11-19

^“11Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. ¹²As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy^[a]met him. They stood at a distance ¹³and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

 ¹⁴When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

 ¹⁵One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. ¹⁶He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

 ¹⁷Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? ¹⁸Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”