The other day I turned on the television as I headed into the kitchen to begin preparing dinner. I sometimes listen to the local news as I work. Too early for the news, I ended up listening to Judge Judy for a time. And I could not help wondering … are people really that dumb? (They must be … because Judge Judy seems to be making a good living off them.)
Judge Judy was ruling on the case of a mother suing her daughter for breaking a window to get into the mom’s house, around $500. It sounded like a trivial thing for a parent to sue a child over until that mother’s child began to talk.
The daughter was 22 years old, with two children by two separate men and had moved back into her mom’s house. Mom set some rules, rules the daughter broke when trying to get into the house after spending the night with a boyfriend.
After listening to this daughter argue with Judge Judy about her rights and needs (she did not even pay rent), I realized she would make the perfect poster child for “Entitled.” Entitled means believing oneself to be inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment. It means thinking that the world and everything in it revolves around you.
Unfortunately, entitled is a sibling of sin. It was the reasoning the serpent used in the Garden of Eden when he approached Eve. He asked her about eating from the trees in the garden and when Eve responded that they could eat from every tree except one, the serpent responded that she was entitled to eat from that one also.
“In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” [Genesis 3:4 HCSB]
The serpent convinced Eve she was entitled to disobey God, Eve convinced Adam. And with that choice, sadly, sin, death, and judgment entered humanity. Only the sacrifice of God’s Son would be enough to overcome what that original “entitled choice” cost us.
