Just What I Deserve
I admit it, I really love some of the makeover shows on TV. Not the ones that involve extensive plastic surgery, but ones that try to make a person over from the inside out. There’s usually some point in the show where the person being made over finally starts to realise they have some intrinsic value (one a lot higher than their poor self-confidence reflects). They then express their gratitude, and the hosts almost always tell them the same thing: “You deserve it.”
Now, oftentimes the people are good folks who have been struggling in some area or are starting some new endeavor, and they really could use a new wardrobe. They are often people about whom one could use the term “deserving.” But the idea that one deserves a brand new, brand name wardrobe is, well, ridiculous. They often have some (or even great) need for these things, but to declare that they deserve it… well, if they do, there are thousands, perhaps even millions, of others who do as well. And if all those people deserve it, then all the others who do as well should be getting the same treatment –– which would be nearly impossible.
Our culture is always telling people they deserve things –– the best, the most glamorous, the newest, etc. The problem with this is twofold. First is that it downplays the value of the things we really are owed. When desert becomes about having nice things (and I have nothing against nice things), it distracts us from the things we really do deserve and need. These are our human rights, respect for our inherent dignity, and our lives. There’s nothing wrong with a new dress, a new car, or a new house, but by making them issues of desert, we give them emphasis they don’t deserve (they are only things, even if necessary ones) and it becomes easier to forget about the issues that really do matter. How often material things have interfered with the needs of our brothers and sisters…
The other part of the problem is that it does away with true generosity. If I deserve the new wardrobe, the hosts of the show are only giving what is owed me. There’s no great merit in that, and no true generosity. We do not say a man is generous for paying his employees; they work, and he pays them as they deserve. We say he is generous for volunteering his time, or donating to charity.
Unfortunately, it seems like the idea of desert is creeping in everywhere. I’ve seen it in schools, where people decide they deserved a certain grade, and have been wronged by a teacher. I’ve seen it driving, where people don’t seem to think the rules apply to them. There’s a new trend in parenting called “me time,” which goes beyond the need of people to recharge their batteries to putting themselves before their children, or in the well-intentioned quest to buy a child everything he or she wants, because he “deserves the best.”
But perhaps most sadly, I see it in religion. Perhaps it is recoiling from the fire and brimstone, hell and damnation style of preaching so many were familiar with, or a few too many times being told they were going to hell. I don’t really like being told I’m hellbound, and I don’t tell others they are, either. However, a lot of us, myself included, find ourselves in this mindset that we deserve heaven because we make an effort, or we’re not as bad as other people, and in addition to being completely wrong (with a good dose of pride), we’re undermining the generosity of the cross. If we deserve it, Christ’s sacrifice was no biggie. Okay, it was painful, but if we deserve heaven then why did he even do it? But if we really think about how much we need a savior, and just how bad we really are (easily closer to Hitler than Jesus on the spectrum of human behavior), then the gift becomes something to really be grateful for. That is true generosity, and it’s amazing. As we get closer to Lent, I’m going to try to be grateful that God doesn’t give me what I deserve, because hell isn’t where I want the last bus stop to be.
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Thanks for reading! I’m currently thinking about a brief series I’m going to call the “Quixotic Catechesis.” :D Back soon I hope.. will definitely do another round of Quick Takes on Friday!
-Rosy
