Luke 17:10 “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'”

It’s been many years since I was first struck by this verse. It is the exact antidote to the entitlement mentality that has captured so many people today. The big problem with luxury is that we expect things to always be that way, when that’s not how the world works. The absurdity of the demands of some of the students who have been protesting on university campuses in support of Hamas, a vile, terrorist organization, are absolutely laughable, as well as pathetic. When I saw video of some complaining that being given bananas was emotional abuse, I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears! That people in temperate climates can eat tropical fruits freely is a luxury unimaginable as recently as 150 years ago. There is a picture circulating on the Internet of the first time bananas ever arrived in Norway, for example. It would be total comedy if we weren’t talking about real human beings, reduced to essentially useless, unhappy puppets. Those who still have some sense in their heads need to learn from the absurdity and take Jesus’ words here to heart. The problem is, we all suffer from a sense of entitlement to some degree, and it robs us of gratitude, which numerous studies, as well as personal experience, show is the absolute key to happiness. Inflated expectations are poison to peace and contentment. It’s not that we aren’t to strive to improve conditions, for ourselves and others, but it is very much to say that we aren’t to expect the world to be handed to us on a silver platter. (Some people seem to be demanding a gold platter!) We need to combine this verse with another famous saying of Jesus: “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) If we remember these two verses, we will have peace and even joy as we navigate this life.

This certainly applies to me. I grew up rather privileged in a number of ways, as a Caucasian in post-war Japan and the son of a high-status university administrator. We lived in that was a very large house by the standards of the day (though today it would be called a “modest ranch”) and rode in an imported car. I don’t think any of my friends, either Japanese or American, had a tree in their yard big enough to build a treehouse in it, but we did. I don’t think my parents went to any special lengths to protect me from a sense of entitlement, and sure enough, I had one! I am as vulnerable to taking things for granted as anyone. Getting married right after college embarked me on a crash course in my real education. It was a very blessed time, but hardly an easy one, with getting drafted, having a car repossessed for late payments, and a number of other things. After getting out of the Army I literally worked for anyone who would hire me, in order to support my wife and children. I learned a lot, and the reality of what Jesus says here was one of the most important of those things. Just last night I was able to pass some of that on to a child in the faith who is infected by some of the lies of the devil. He is actually very blessed, in a number of ways far more than I was at his stage in life, but his expectations are unrealistic. I need to help him recognize the blessings he has been given and be grateful, just as I need to do myself. Jesus wasn’t being mean, He was being realistic, and that is the way of greatest blessing.

Father, thank You for this strong reminder. Thank You for blessing me incredibly throughout my life. May I indeed live in gratitude, making the use of Your blessings that You intend, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!