1st world problems

we all have them.  things that irk us for no other reason than their sheer annoyance.  the store was out of the "fat-free" version.  the waiter forgot your house salad.  ugh, you got stuck in rush-hour traffic because of a bad wreck (guilty, as i tweeted my frustration about this one last week).  your iphone screen is cracked.  the lady giving you a pedicure didn't do all the right massage techniques.  and heaven forbid, they get your order wrong at the drive-thru and you've already left.

okay, maybe your frustrations are a little lot less petty than mine.

not sure who dubbed it, but social media has perpetuated the term "1st-world problems" for venting frustrations that really, in the light of it all, aren't problems at all.

this all got me thinking.  we get frustrated when things don't go as we expect they should.  but, do we really have the right to have expectations?  where is that right born?  when do we decide what we are entitled to?

because, if, after all, we base our expectations on entitlement, really, our entitlement is death, because we as sinners are not entitled to life.

that was, of course, all before Christ.  and far too many commas, am i right?

Christ laid down every entitlement He had as God when He came to earth to live, give, serve, lead, and ultimately die for each of us.  He decided that while we were worthy of death, His love, mercy, and grace would redeem us and make us ultimately entitled to eternal-life through His resurrection.

it's not easy to sign over your life, lay down your rights, and live as if you deserve nothing but have been granted everything through His love and mercy.  it requires sacrifice.  it requires patience.  it requires a great deal of dying to self, and to be perfectly honest, i'm not very good at that.

the next time you find yourself getting upset at a "first-world problem," i challenge you to respond with love, patience, and grace; as if you are not entitled to that expectation in the first place.  and pray for me: to be mindful of this myself, so that i, too, can live beyond a sense of expectation.