Entitlement

You have to admit - the sense of entitlement we walk around with in today's world is amazing. But...there...has...to...be...balance! Nothing that we have here goes with us - it's all completely temporary - so where does that sense of entitlement come from? The earth isn't ours. We think we own it but we have only borrowed it from our children.

The energy of entitlement is "I am owed something," I deserve it and I am owed it, therefore I should have it. How much of that is justified? OK, so let's say you work hard, and make payments and then you own a house or a car or some other thing. There is some kind of legitimate sense of entitlement in that. But even working for something isn't enough, because there has to be be balance in ALL things, not just the object of our desire.

Let's say, for example, we buy a house that sucks up energy and dries out the street on a daily basis. We worked hard, right? We earned the money, and we paid the money for the house, right? Are we entitled? The house is a integral part of a street, a block, a community, an area, a county, a state, a country, the world; and as such, the house is related and responsible for it's relationship to the rest of the world.

Each and every one of us is related and responsible for our relationship with the world in our every action and that's why entitlement isn't as real as we'd like to think. Until hunger is eradicated, are we entitled to the excessive level of waste we participate in? Until violence has ended, are we entitled to ignore it? Until the planet shrivels up under the ever pressing clouds of the chemical combustion of consumerism, are we entitled to just keep on buying and throwing away?

We are not depraved beings - we are blessed beyond belief; we have the luxury to live life and seek human spirit - love, intimacy, sharing, God, happiness, connectedness, power... And the only thing we are really entitled to is the gift of what we have to GIVE in life. That is our power, that is how we serve , that is where our passion comes in to play and that is how we are fulfilled in the highest, most overflowing sense imaginable.

Life is such a magnificent opportunity to give and to serve - and that can get wasted on feeling entitled. Look at what you feel you are owed and counteract it by giving instead. "God can rotate the earth, surely He can take care of you." So leave what you feel you are entitled to, to God, and go out in the world and bless the world with your service - today and every day.

Blessings.
- Darshan

© 2009 Darshan F Jessop