Do I Expect People To Treat Me Like Royalty?
A few weeks ago rookie NBA basketball player Lonzo Ball hosted an autograph signing for $199 per signature. I guess the $6.9 million that he is going to make this year is not enough… because of the success of his family name and his skills as a basketball player, he seems to feel entitled to receive even more money from fans that make far less money than he does. Sure, this is an extreme case of an entitlement issue, but don’t we all have the tendency to expect more from others than we need or deserve?
One thing that strikes me about our society is the sense of entitlement that some people have. We expect others to treat us like kings and queens. We think we are entitled to the things we do not have, and are not thankful for the things we do have. There used to be a time when people were thankful for their jobs. Now it seems like all anyone does is complain about their jobs and how little money they make. People do need a livable wage, but a lot of the ones that are complaining make enough money… they just feel like they deserve more. Many of these people even cut corners at their jobs and only do just enough to keep the boss happy. They spend half of their work hours on social media and non-work related activities, and then complain about their jobs or their compensation.
Or how about simple conveniences? We complain when the Wi-Fi goes out or when dinner isn’t served on time. And then what do we do when something doesn’t go according to plan? We make excuses, blame someone else, and complain about it. We are always looking for something to complain about instead of being thankful for what we have. Most modern conveniences are things that people lived without for thousands of years. Surely we can survive a few hours without Wi-Fi! There are also people all around the world who would love to have one meal at any time, but we complain about it being 30 minutes late. Here in America where we have all of these things, we just complain and take our frustrations out on the customer service representative or waitress who most likely could never have prevented the frustration. It just all seems silly and unfortunate when you really think about it…
My encouragement for you today is to simply be thankful for what you have. Don’t expect that anyone owes you anything. In all reality, we do not deserve a single thing that we have received. We could just as easily have been born without anything at all. The Bible says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). Thus we should be thankful to God that he has provided good things for us, and realize that we are entitled to none of it.
