Entitlement

I am afraid that we live in a world where mediocracy is rewarded while perfection is sought.  At the end of the little league season every player must receive a trophy; we must have an award for every student at graduation so as to rally inclusion and ensure no one become offended.  There was a time in our society when the level of effort was directionally proportional to the degree of outcome and marginality was frowned upon.  Our indolent attitudes combined with our slothful lifestyles have procured for us an apathetic society which rests on the ideal of entitlement only to be propelled by the wings of complacency.  "Why try my best, I am going to get an award anyway" or "I am not going to study, I won't fail anyway", both of these statements I have heard time and again yet each time they are uttered I am dumbfounded.  Our ancestors knew the value of hard work, their efforts afford us our freedoms, our education and our rights often taken for granted and lumped in with the entitlement effect.  Entitlement is contagious for once it invades one aspect of life, we become forayers rewriting a history quickly tainted by laziness and apathy.  This apathetic mentality spreads like wildfire, expunging oxygen from the air and choking those in its path.  Unfortunately, faith is no stranger to this entitlement effect.  Our faith is who we are or who we are to become, it is not something by which we are to be separated. Faith in action is life itself wrapped in the Father's unconditional love.  The entitlement effect has become detrimental to our faith life as well for we believe we need only show up to church and faith will fall upon us like some magical fairy dust or worse yet we develop dual personalities like Sybil, one for dealing with society and the other our religiosity.  Yes, faith is a free gift given to us by God in hopes that our embracing such a gift will revitalize our soul and allow us to live the reality of God, finding our way home in love.   Faith is not a handout, faith is a gift often unopened for the tag labeled faith brands the gift with a sense of entitlement and it is placed on the shelf where it collects layers of dust, never to see the light of day.  As the gift sits, the recipient of the gift becomes increasingly agitated for a void plagues life and the search to fill such a void begins.  Moments of wandering, moments of wondering these are not the demise of our faith; they do not create the ruins of the soul for ruins are perpetrated by years of neglects, years of abandonment.  What we must concern ourselves with is where we wander and how we wonder.  Do we wander in despair, in angst viewing the world as our enemy, just waiting to be attacked or always prepared for the attack that we miss the grandeur of life, the beauty of a faith, the truth discovered in unconditional love?  Do we wonder without hope, without faith, without love that our days are numbered by regiments of time crudely developed by flawed minds attempting to regulate life?  The wonderment of purpose without faith leads only to a shallow existence plagued by listless thought and hopeless dreams.  The beauty of the world lies before us yet often we only see the rain, only see the uprooted trees leading us to believe life is nothing more than sorrow, than disappointment.  Had we opened the gift of faith, we would be surprised to see the equipment necessary to weather the storms and extend to us a purpose driven life.  At first glance, the tools seem archaic, somewhat primitive and fearful we step back allowing the tools to gather some dust.  We watch, a house cannot be built without tools; each tool necessary in the construction of a house built to withstand the elements of Mother Nature.  Our tools of faith are no different, each tool carries its own purpose that we may withstand the elements of society which attempt to drag us down to mediocracy, deflating our confidence and expelling our strength until we become so weary that the very idea of lifting any tool becomes so terrifying that we retreat to the "safety" of the secular or "normal" world.  Should we choose the latter option of retreat we will never fully understand the use of each tool, never will we fully grasp the commitment to developing the necessary skills to become artisans of the heart, skilled laborers of faith.  Flooded by the entitlement effect, we become lethargic and tire quickly; for even a single pound of the hammer translates into work and so we set it down waiting for someone else to pick it up and continue our work.  Faith is an individual gift though it is presented to all, it resonates with each differently.  We may grow together in faith but none of us grows at exactly the same rate nor takes the exact same path.  There may be times when we put down the hammer but God has given us many tools so let us never walk empty handed; if we tire with the hammer, let us pick up the pliers and learn its trade, its purpose in our respective lives.  We can sit, we can wait for that box to open itself but the wait will be eternal and our human lives will cease; the gift of faith wasted.  There are many of us who open the gift use its contents for a while and then set them aside for we built a few houses and that should be enough.  Resting on our laurels is complacency in real time for achievements in faith lead us to our purpose which lead us to life itself, our connection with the Father, our connection to love in this life linked to the path to our true life.  If we do not put forth effort; if we do not wander in guided directions of faith; if we do not wonder nestled in the the love of God we will never become who we are, we will never understand our purpose for our retreat to normalcy will be a retreat to the shadows where the rays of the Son are blocked by walls of mediocracy and entitlement.  Hidden from the rays of love, life withers, hope dies and faith separates itself from our person for it is deemed an extravagance rather than a necessity.  Without faith we become plagued by that which hinders society...apathy.  The landslides of mediocracy attempt to deflate our excitement for our journey as they become roadblocks on our path.  Let the landslides fall for they give us a chance to change direction, a chance to use our tools of faith to forge a new path, to discover what lies hidden among the weeds.  We must not let fear determine our path for what a lonely, what an anxious path it will be for fear cripples the heart and paralyzes the soul.  So what if we initially use the pliers as a hammer; should we persist we will find out that sometimes our first choice of a tool may not be the best so we change tools and discover its true use.  It is in this discovery which we actually come alive, for we have uncovered our purpose; our direction may not be crystal clear but it is not entangled in fear nor it is intertwined in mediocracy.   Our ancestors were right, the amount of work we put forth is directly proportional to the outcome.  Should we spend our time developing our tools of faith, life will become faith and fear will have no effect upon our hearts.  Let us break these chains of mediocracy, let us become the greatness that we are and disregard the entitlement effect by our actions of faith.  It is in faith that our life lies; it is in faith that we become alive; it is in faith that we discover the reality of God present in our lives.  God's presence, our present in the gift of faith...our effort is our thanks for this gift.  Have you thanked God today?