Working to Receive
Last week my family and I had the chance to go to a Denver Broncos game. They have had the worst record in years, and a somewhat tumultuous season. With each botched play, incomplete pass, and missed tackle the vocalized disgruntlement with the team grew. My wife and I were putting “earmuffs” on our kids as fans expressed their outrage. It seemed as though they believed that Champ Bailey actually missed a tackle only to upset them.
Should I even begin to talk about the frustrated status updates on Facebook each time there is a tweak to the site? What about the perplexed look people get at a coffee house when the internet goes down? Last month I was on a flight when someone threw their hands up in the air and shook their head in bewilderment when the DirectTV feed went out ... on an airplane.
All of these things I believe point to what has become a common and destructive part of the American life. Entitlement.
We are a narcissistic lot. Somehow getting to the place where we believe that the world owes us something. This attitude is the result of the notion that we do not owe anyone anything, because whatever we have accomplished has come through our own hard work. And it is because of our hard work that we feel as though we deserve something.
We act as though all that we have has been earned by the sweat of our brow. Because of this, we demean any hint of a handout. We degrade anyone who speaks about those who have not worked hard getting what we have. Our culture is a worthiness contest.
Someone recently said to me rather passionately, “How can anyone expect to get for free what I have worked so hard for?!” This attitude is nothing new. In fact it is something that God spoke about in anticipation of his people, Israel, going into the promise land.
The Land of Promise was a rich and fertile place. It was flowing with milk and honey. It produced ginormous crops and yielded abundant fruit. With a little hard work it was expected that you would get wealthy. With a little blood, sweat, and tears you would have more than you knew what to do with. God wanted to remind his people never to become too conceited or entitled. So he said this to them:
When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God … Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud ... You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth … If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. (Taken from Deuteronomy 8.10-20, NIV, italics added for emphasis)
God is warning the people of Israel to be careful lest they think they have earned all of their wealth. The reality is they did not earn anything - it was a gift. It’s the same today none of us earn anything – we are given good gifts from above from our Father in heaven.
All of these thoughts were floating around in my head yesterday, when I received a confrontational (but anonymous) email that said, “I believe that our wealth was from hard work, honesty, ingenuity, personal responsibility, and the ability to dream due the unique level of freedom only this country once protected.” This comment seems to ring of Deuteronomy 8, and sounds much like what God warned his people of.
When we say these things and believe that we have earned the right to have Direct TV on an airplane or a flawless wireless connection at a coffee shop we are not only showing signs of arrogance but also greed. And it is greed that keeps us tightfisted toward those we deem unworthy. However, when we recognize that all we have is a gift, when we see that it is God who has given us the ability to create wealth, we are then free to give it away. This is the biggest struggle ... the belief that you in fact have not earned anything and learning to believe that all you have has been given to you.
If you live believing that all that you have is the result of your working your fingers to the bone, and act as though the only way anyone will get anything from you is to pry it from your cold dead hands … you may be entitled. From this place we are no longer free to receive gifts, because we think we deserve them because of our hard work. At a deeper level it also prevents us from receiving grace, because we think we have performed well enough or behaved well enough.
But the God of Deuteronomy is not concerned with your performance, your title, your degrees, your paycheck, your zip code, your car, or the tag on your clothing and frankly he doesn’t give a damn how hard you worked for it. The God of Deuteronomy loves you because you are his son or because you are his daughter.
And by the way … he loves the person who hasn’t worked as hard as you because they are his son and daughter. He even loves the people some think are just looking for handouts because they are his kids too. This is the frustrating side of grace ... it is not about earning anything, it is about receiving, which in the end leaves us powerless. Powerless to do anything about the lavish, generous love of God.
You can stand right next to someone you think is unworthy and God will love you both the same. Grace is the epitome of unfairness in our context, which operates under the rule of entitlement.
The problem is, entitlement and grace cannot dwell beneath the same roof. And we must choose which one will be shown the door. Whichever choice we make will certainly influence the way we see the world – and perhaps the way we act at football games.