I know I’ve been told many a time how fortunate I am to be able to own or experience even half of what I have now. Don't get me wrong, I dont want to stop getting these things and I want to understand how blessed I am to have them, but I still have a problem. No matter how much I try to make it sink into my mind that I am blessed, I still feel that I deserve things. The word even annoys me when used in certain contexts. According to dictionary.com, one of the definitions of the word deserve is: 1. to merit, be qualified for, or have a claim to (reward, assistance, punishment, etc.) because of actions, qualities, or situation 2. to be worthy of, qualified for, or have a claim to reward, punishment, recompense.
The reason I dislike the word in some contexts that it is most commonly used to argue that someone deserves something good.
Who of the human race is exempt from having ever done anything wrong? Nobody. So why should anyone deserve something they want or think is good? Who is qualified to have a claim on something they want for the sole purpose that they want it?
The reason I dislike the word in some contexts that it is most commonly used to argue that someone deserves something good.
Who of the human race is exempt from having ever done anything wrong? Nobody. So why should anyone deserve something they want or think is good? Who is qualified to have a claim on something they want for the sole purpose that they want it?
My question is: when will the reality of what I really deserve sink in enough to change my view of what I think I deserve? It’s amazing to me that people (myself being a primary example of this) can one minute decide to not be selfish and consider themself entitled to things just because they want them but the next minute, turn around and act on what they had just decided not to do. Some habits are rooted so deeply within our being that they are nearly impossible to quit. I believe this deep rooted love of making ourselves happy and the mindset that because we want something we deserve it is one of the main reasons that some people so strongly oppose Christianity or the belief that there is a God at all. That would mean that there would be something bigger, better and more worthy to live for than just making ourselves happy and that idea is extremely difficult to live out (extreme difficulty does not equal impossibility though).
When this idea is accepted and lived out though, I believe people would find more freedom in the concept than they expect they will before they actually experience it. Because when someone decides that there is something better to live for, they are set free from being expected by themselves and society to live for the goal we were born trying to attain: to do everything we can to make ourselves happy.
I recently had the fact dawn on me that humans were not created for the purpose of being happy. That seems strange because there is nothing bad about happiness. Try as I did, I couldn't think of anything wrong or negative or undesirable about happiness (unless it becomes an idol), so this concept was sort of hard to wrap my mind around but what helped was the knowledge that we were made to love, please and seek God, not our own happiness, and in that we can find joy.
The only one who overlooked what we people really deserve, offers us what we think we deserve: complete contentment and joy. And I believe joy trumps happiness any day.
I recently had the fact dawn on me that humans were not created for the purpose of being happy. That seems strange because there is nothing bad about happiness. Try as I did, I couldn't think of anything wrong or negative or undesirable about happiness (unless it becomes an idol), so this concept was sort of hard to wrap my mind around but what helped was the knowledge that we were made to love, please and seek God, not our own happiness, and in that we can find joy.
The only one who overlooked what we people really deserve, offers us what we think we deserve: complete contentment and joy. And I believe joy trumps happiness any day.