There’s Some Sheen In All Of Our Halos

I, like the rest of the country, have watched in horror at Charlie Sheen unraveling his life and saying the most entitled and egotistical things that could ever be spoken. My first reaction was how destructive fame and money could be in our lives. However, I changed my tune after a brief conversation at the homeless shelter this week. Someone came to complain that they were only allowed 10 minute showers. I thought to myself, “How interesting that people with literally nothing, being blessed by this organization, after all of the sacrifices made by volunteers, is complaining about only getting 10 minutes in the nice hot shower before they went to their nice warm bed, paid for by people who believe that nobody should sleep in the cold in our country.” It was in the same vein as Charlie Sheen announcing that he needed to make $3 million an episode, rather than his measly $2 million. Completely on opposite sides of the spectrum, but the very same heart behind it!

As I thought about it, I realized that all of us have a streak of entitlement in us. Definitely not as pronounced as what we have seen by Sheen on the news, but nonetheless, we still think that we DESERVE and EARN the right to have whatever it is that we WANT when we want it.

Maybe that’s the real reason that Christianity is so difficult for most people to grasp. God’s love is UNDESERVED, you CAN’T earn it, and you have to surrender everything YOU want for what HE wants. It’s contrary to everything that our flesh pushes us towards. It truly becomes an exercise in sacrificial love and surrender to a God that you trust with your needs and desires.

I can say that the most beautiful people I know grasp the undeserved love, unearned grace, and release their own entitlement to His will. It is the polar opposite to the insanity that Sheen is parading in front of the cameras. My prayer for him, and for all of us, is that we would bend against the force of entitlement in our lives and rest in the fact that, if nothing else, we have the love of Christ available to us. What more could we possibly need?