Yesterday Lucas

Yesterday I had to pay some bills related to the construction of the Casa de la Cultura. I met the foreman, and gave him money to pay the workers. Then I stopped at one construction supply store to pay for the steel, and then at another store to pay for the concrete. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to paying everything in cash, but it is the way things work here.

I don’t mind paying bills. I’ve always believed in keeping short accounts. If I’m able, I pay a bill as soon as I get it. And with the exception of long-term loans like houses or cars, I’m usually able because I’ve learned not to buy what I can’t afford. (Sure, it took me a while to really learn that. But I’ve learned it.)

I’m saddened, however, when I see that our world has embraced the notion of entitlement. Everyone wants something for nothing. The largest part of the economy in the United States can be filed under the category, “Entitlements.”

Our young people learn this mentality from the start. In video games now, no one ever really dies. You can always start over from your last check point, without losing anything. And there are so many game shows and “reality” shows in which people win obscene amounts of money for doing nothing. Deprivation is now measured in terms of not having the latest iPhone or game, whereas it used to be associated with things like the famine in Ethiopia. Remember that? Remember seeing pictures of starving, skin-and-bones children. No more. That’s uncomfortable. And I’m entitled to be comfortable.

But what about the gospel? Isn’t that something for nothing?

Common mistake. People fail to understand that when someone chooses to give, and another receives, that’s called grace. It is a blessing. And people who receive grace rarely feel entitled to it. In fact, it’s humbling. And it’s a joy for the giver as well.

I think our only hope for our children lies in teaching them to give without the expectation to receive. And avoid society’s so-called “entitlements” if at all possible.

We would all do well to heed the example of King David, in 2 Samuel 24:

 ¹⁸ On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹⁹ So David went up, as the LORD had commanded through Gad. ²⁰ When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.

²¹ Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”

“To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the LORD, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”

²² Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. ²³ Your Majesty, Araunah gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the LORD your God accept you.”

²⁴ But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them. ²⁵ David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the LORD answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.