ENTITLED
As the person behind me, whizzed around me when the stop light turned green, he gave me the finger (won’t tell you what finger but you can guess). He had followed right behind me in the left lane on the side road. The person could have gone around me at any time. There was not anyone else on that road.
The man on the phone was cursing me out at work. He wanted to talk to the doctor right that second. The doctor he wanted to talk to was in surgery. There was no way that he could talk to her at that moment nor was there any way I would ever interrupt a doctor in surgery! If your pet was the one under anesthesia, would you want the doctor to be interrupted in the middle of that procedure?
A lady called one day at work. I did not have an answer to her question. It was a medical question about her pet. I am a receptionist. Never gone to college for the medical part of my work. She called me incompetent because I told her I would have to have a technician call her back. The same lady had an appointment for her two dogs. When she got there, she came to the cat door and pounded on the door. She had hurt her foot and had a boot on. I immediately went to the dog door and told her to come in that lobby. She just threw the two leashes of her two big dogs at me. I was so thankful that I was able to get both of the leashes before they took off. She fussed at me the entire time because we did not have good enough parking. She was handicapped and felt I needed to tell the doctor to get better parking for her. You can be sure that I took her immediately to an examination room.
Airplanes are requiring people who are flying with them, to wear a mask. There have been many cases of a person not wanting to wear their mask and they lash out at the stewardess. In one such case, he punched her and knocked out a couple of the stewardess teeth.
Why do people feel they are entitled to be first, to not follow the rules, to call you names, to feel their problem is more important than another? I am sure you have come across someone like that in your life. People like that, are only thinking of themselves. They are not thinking of how their actions affect another or the impression they are leaving with them. Also, they do not realize how selfish they are being. They are totally thinking of themselves! When someone feels entitled, they have the belief that they deserve privileges or recognition for something that they did not earn. They believe that the world owes them something in exchange for nothing. They are looking for what they can get instead of what they should be giving.
Let’s see what scripture tells us about being entitled. In Matthew 20:20-28, we are told of the mother of two of Jesus’ disciples, James and John the sons of Zebedee, who came to Jesus asking Him if her sons can sit, one on the right and one on the left, of Jesus in His kingdom. (Compare to Mark 10:35-45, it does not mention their mother asking but the disciples themselves asking.) As a mother of two sons myself, I can understand wanting to have them one on the left and the other on the right of Jesus. We as mothers, only want the best for our children. We want them to become important and successful. The mother above, felt that her sons were entitled to that prominent position.
In Matthew 25:1-13, is a parable told by Jesus of five foolish and five wise virgins who took their lamps out to meet the bridegroom. There are so many lessons we can glean from this scripture, but have you thought of it this way? Five of them took oil for their lamps and five took no oil. The bridegroom was delayed and they all slept. When he was coming, the five wise were ready. But the foolish five who had no oil, pleaded with them to share their oil. They were told to go get some oil for themselves because they did not have enough for themselves and them too. While they were gone, the bridegroom came, closed the door and would not let them in. The five foolish felt they were entitled, even though they were not prepared, to get oil from the wise.
In both of the examples above, there are many lessons we can learn. In the first one, Jesus makes the point that He came to serve and not to be served. In the second one, Jesus is making the point that we need to be prepared when He comes to take us to our eternal home. I also see the entitlement they felt they had, in the first by feeling her sons had the right to sit by Jesus side and in the second, to not be prepared themselves.
Matthew 23:11-12 reads, “But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Jesus was talking to the scribes and Pharisees that their actions were only to be seen by men and they needed to “take it down a notch” and become humble. This verse speaks to me also, that those who feel they are the only one who should get their needs taken care of before another or someone who feels they are more important than another, need to realize that we are put on this earth to help and serve each other. Not for our own glory!
There are always going to be people like the ones I mentioned at the first of this blog, who feel they are entitled. People who are only looking at themselves and what they can get or who they can push around or have actions that they feel makes them seem more important to get their way or feel by how they act they are more important than you are. Our humanness, makes us want to become angry and snap back at them. Think about all Jesus went through while on this earth. But yet through Jesus’ words and actions we can learn so much. Even at the cross Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” Even then, He was putting others before himself.
There will always be times that we start to feel entitled to get something or be someone. Start watching yourself and your actions, and learn to recognize those feelings. Turn that entitlement into servitude. The scripture tells it much better than I can.
Ephesians 4:1-3 tells us, “…walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
Philippians 2:2-4 reminds us, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”
Till next time.
Keela