deserving?
January 9, 2005
what do you deserve? what are you entitled to? make a list and be brutally honest.
a lot of us think we're entitled to/deserve a lot of things in life: health, food, shelter, clothing, education, family, friends, work, the list could go on and on. when these things are taken away from us, we are shocked and perhaps even angry. we wonder, we question. we raise our hands up and ask our God, "why me? how could this be love?"
can i suggest to you that we don't deserve anything in this life but death and punishment? everything else we receive is grace. that means things like our health, our food, our clothing, our shelter, etc is grace. this is not an easy concept to grasp. i don't think i've fully taken hold of all the implications, but i've got a pretty good idea coming from the position i'm in. having so many sicknesses and trials at the age of 21/22 is not easy. sometimes it feels like i've been 'robbed' of my life so early on, that i've been 'cut down' before i've even begun. but if i dwell on that, i allow myself to arrogantly think i'm somehow deserving of something i do not deserve. why do i deserve being healthy more than the next guy? just because i'm young? what about those babies born with defects, whether physical or mental?
in our individualistic, western society, our all about me society, this mentality is too easily adopted and believed. there are people that don't even realize that's the mentality they hold. whenever i hear people talk about making sacrifices for God, i always find it strange. i remember olive talked about the concept of sacrifice after she returned from her first trip to the orient. there was a song she loved called "no sacrifice" by jason upton. she was saying that it's not a sacrifice to give things up in our life for God, because we are exchanging those things for something much better. that's always stuck with me.
i'd like to take it in a different direction. it's not a sacrifice to give things up for God, beause we've been given this life, this awesome privilege of existing on this planet for the purpose of glorifying and worshipping God. God created, molded, formed us together for His purposes. He was the one who breathed the breath of life into us, not us. how is it then, that we think our lives belong to us? that we're somehow entitled to so many things in life? when we say we're making a sacrifice for God, what we're really saying is that we're giving up something we're entitled to for Him. as if it was some kind of big deal. and as if we were in fact entitled to it. it's even more appalling to me, that we as a people are taken aback by people who "sacrifice" their lives for God. we think of them as inspirational, as Christian "heroes." maybe because so many people in the world wouldn't be able to do the same. case in point, if you were studying in university and you knew God was calling you to drop everything and do full-time missions instead, how many of us would struggle with it? if you did do it, wouldn't you think it's such a big sacrifice on your part? and how many people knowing that you did that would think it's such a big sacrifice too?
this life that has been entrusted to us is NOT ours. jeremiah had it right when he said, "i know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps" (jeremiah 10:23 [NIV]). if God is calling us to give up something to Him, it is not sacrifice. it is an action that allows us to move closer to the purpose that God has called us to. and like what olive said, we really are exchanging what we have now for something even greater.
remember, we only deserve death and punishment. it was only by His unfathomable love that He spared us. God spared us from what we deserved.
i don't think anyone minds that we get grace. when you're spared from something you didn't deserve, i don't see many people running up and trying to stop it. just say you were speeding, and you got caught doing 40 over the limit and the cop suddenly decides to give you a warning instead. would you refute him and ask him to pay the ticket and get the points? i don't think so. so if we can so easily readily accept grace, why is that we have hard times giving up the things we don't deserve?
there's an simple answer to that. we think we deserve them. we need to radically shift our perspective and remember two things:
1) that everything we have is by the grace of God (translation: it's much easier to give up something you think you don't deserve than something you do deserve) and
2) our lives are not our own.
if we can wrap our hearts around that, i think we'd be able to follow our Lord a lot easier. our lives would be about Him and not us. and instead of sacrifice, it would be joy that fuels us to partner with Him to became an instrument for His glorification. it wouldn't be some big deal for us to give up something for Him. dealing with the harships in life would be easier too. that's not to say that it won't be hard, because it is, trust me. but at the end of day, we'll remember that this life we live is all about God, not us. so whatever may happen, if the glorification of God happens through it, then its worth it, no matter the cost.
"i want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death" - phillipians 3:10 [NIV]
Posted by Leo Chan at January 9, 2005 5:41 PM
