...or is it?! this weekend i had a nice drive to tucson and all of which took place before noon. as i was heading down the I-10 through ahwatukee, i could help but notice a number of billboards that said "it's all about you", "we're here for you", or "shortcut to the good life". while i was reading these billboards, i was listening to a john piper sermon and he was preaching that life is NOT about us, but for the glory of God.
how oxymoronic!
anyways, this has weighed heavily upon me the past three days and i can't help but become disturbed that we feel there is a "shortcut to the good life" or that we "deserve" worldly goods, just because we live here on earth. i have found that in these times (not just bad, but good economic times of recent) that we have become extremely selfish. and it is interesting that the bad economic times that have come as a result of selfishness and greed, is also everybody elses fault and not mine.
what is selfishness? by definition it is, "The quality or state of being selfish; exclusive regard to one's own interest or happiness; that supreme self-love or self-preference which leads a person to direct his purposes to the advancement of his own interest, power, or happiness, without regarding those of others."
God DOES NOT call us to this sort of life. no where in the Bible does God say, "keep to yourself, promote yourself, live for yourself, do as you want to do!" but the ways of the world, the advertisements, the self-help books, the talk shows are all about how to achieve the life that WE want! to be happy with OURSELVES! to find OUR purpose in life! this is the complete antithesis of God's plan for us.
think about it!
in james 3:16-18, it is stated:
"Where jealousy and selfishness are, there will be confusion and every kind of evil. But the wisdom that comes from God is first of all pure, then peaceful, gentle, and easy to please. This wisdom is always ready to help those who are troubled and to do good for others. It is always fair and honest. People who work for peace in a peaceful way plant a good crop of right-living."
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I just gave a lesson yesterday that talked about this! Here is one specific quote I used in the lesson:
ReplyDelete"We live in a time when sacrifice is definitely out of fashion, when the outside forces that taught our ancestors the need for unselfish cooperative service have diminished. Someone has called this the “me” generation—a selfish time when everyone seems to be asking, what’s in it for me? Even some who should know better seem to be straining to win the praise of those who mock and scoff from the “great and spacious building” identified in vision as the pride of the world (see 1 Nephi 8:26–28; 11:35–36).
The worldly aspiration of our day is to get something for nothing. The ancient evil of greed shows its face in the assertion of entitlement: I am entitled to this or that because of who I am—a son or a daughter, a citizen, a victim, or a member of some other group. Entitlement is generally selfish. It demands much, and it gives little or nothing. Its very concept causes us to seek to elevate ourselves above those around us. This separates us from the divine, evenhanded standard of reward that when anyone obtains any blessing from God, it is by obedience to the law on which that blessing is predicated (see D&C 130:21).
I couldn't agree with your comments more!
This is wonderful. I agree we need to change our focus from ourselves to God ad what he wants for us and for us to do for him. I too struggle with wanting things, I feel like I deserve and need to cintinually remind myself that when God feels my wants are important he will bless me with them and that I need to be patient until that happens.
ReplyDeletei love it becky!
ReplyDeletei once heard a pastor say, "we deserve nothing!" in other words, as humans we don't deserve anything. but in the world, we feel like we deserve a certain salary, or we deserve cars, houses, love, friends. but to deserve something is to have something just because we are here. it's like you were talking about with entitlement.
sacrafice is definitely out of fashion. this is why i look up to my grandparents. they scraped and saved and did whatever they needed to do during the great depression to survive. but somehow in this recession we feel like we're still entitled to a lifestyle of good times!
i was talking with a friend of mine who has a nice house (it's not elaborate or expensive, but he and his father-in-law built it together) and his grandfather was talking about how his generation would save for decades to buy a house. and today's generation feels like they are entitled to owning a house right out of college! just because they have a job and they've been given so much to that point in their lives.
i definitely think scaling back is a necessity.