WHAT WE DESERVE. (A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE)

I think we leverage way too much expectation into what we think we deserve.  I’m not sure we understand what we deserve. For example, most people think that if they work reasonably hard, then they deserve a comfortable life.  I’m sure most people wouldn’t say that, but I’m positive most people think that.  That’s kind of the rule of karma: do something good and good stuff happens right back to you. If there was a life lived well enough that deserved comfort, it was Jesus.  Jesus was perfect and could have expected perfection. Jesus’ life was far from perfect.  He was homeless.  His teachings and his authority were constantly being questioned.  His best friends abandoned Him when He needed them.  He was falsely accused, tried, and executed with thieves. Jesus’ life is a bit of a contradiction to the principles of karma.  He didn’t get what He deserved.  A lot of the times, we don’t either. Life isn’t always going to be comfortable.  There is going to be trouble.  You can certainly count on conflict being a regular part of life. We need to get over thinking that we deserve comfort. Unlike Jesus, we all have sinned.  By sinning we broke a law that demands punishment.  That punishment ultimately is death. We deserve the punishment, but because of Jesus we don’t get it.  Jesus took our punishment on himself. We don’t deserve grace, but grace has freely been given to us.  We don’t deserve open access to God because we’re filthy in our sin, but Jesus’ plowed through our sin and delivered a open road to the Father.  We don’t deserve the experience of the Father’s love because we are so prone to turning our affections to other things, but the Father has lavishly poured His love upon us, most notably through Christ Jesus. Let’s stop focusing on what we think we deserve and don’t have and, in turn, focus on what we do have that we don’t deserve. It’s all a matter of perspective.