The Life I Deserve

 

I have noticed a trend recently in ads on TV. It goes something like this:

You need product X. 

Product X will make your life perfect.

And you deserve a perfect life.
So get product X.

You deserve it.

It seems to be a common theme. I am sitting here watching TV on a Friday night and just counting the ads that tell me what I deserve (no, I have nothing better to do, and yes I am a geek). In one 5min ad break there were 4 ads telling me how I deserve to have what they are offering.

I find this a fascinating concept.

Firstly, how egotistical are they?! If I am as amazing as they say then I deserve only the best. And they say that the best is them! Now as a Kiwi I am obliged to cut down any tall poppies I see so I immediately feel suspicious when they start telling me how amazing they are. 

Time to burst their little bubble I think.

YOU ARE NOT SO GREAT. YOU SMELL. YOU LOOK FUNNY.

There, that should do it.

But it isn't that that bugs me. I don't really mind if they are a bit arrogant. I can live with that.

No, the question I ask myself every time is, why? Why do I deserve this? What have I done to deserve anything? What about being human means I feel I deserve having pretty, expensive things?

I am not saying that my self esteem is so low that I think I shouldn't have pretty things. I like pretty things and I like having them, but there is something fundamentally wrong with us believing that some how we have a 'right' to having money, we have a 'right' to having everything we want.

Coz we don't. 

If we look at the biblical story, there is nothing to tell us that we have the right to anything! In fact it is quite the opposite.

We have no right to anything.

        

Everything is God's and it is through graces that we are given what we have. 

In fact, the only thing that we deserve is to grow old and die with no hope for anything else. It is only through grace that we exist, that we have hope, that we are alive and survive. To say otherwise is to take the grace of God and cheapen it.

We cheapen it by saying that we deserve all we want and we want it immediately. We leave no room for the providence of God. We stop relying on God and start relying on our money. We can provide for ourselves and we can spend what we want without feeling guilty. Who cares that there are people in the majority of the world who can't afford three meals a day, we deserve that new diamond ring for thousands of dollars. In fact, if we don't get it it will mean our partner doesn't love us enough, we deserve it and they should know that!

                        

We cheapen it by saying we deserve to look like models on TV. It doesn't matter that this is how we were made and God thinks we are beautiful. We cheapen God's grace by judging others by how they look, not through the love God has for them. We deserve the 'perfect' body and face. God obviously made a mistake. People with disabilities are broken and we hide them away so we don't have to be reminded that life can get difficult and doesn't work perfectly. We want to fix what we think God has done wrong. 

We cheapen it by demanding what we want and refusing to wait for it. We no longer want to wait for the voice of God in the small whisper. We don't want to be told no. We want it and we want it now. God sometimes takes time. Grace is always perfectly timed. But we don't want that. We arrogantly say that everything must be done when we want it because we DESERVE to have it now.

So we reject God's gifts, timing, and creation because we think that we deserve something more than has already been given us. We think that we are some how more deserving than others so we need the latest thing to outdo our friends and family. 

Well let me tell you, you don't deserve it. You may want it, you may like it, you may even buy, but you don't deserve it.

Remember who deserves the praise. Remember that God deserves praise because life only happens because God deems it to be so. We only have hope because God first died for us. God deserves our love and devotion because without God we aren't.

It is only because God wants you alive that your are alive. Don't forget that in amongst all the calls for your attention and money that there is only one person who really deserves it.

And only then will you actually find joy in life.