Spirit of Entitlement

On a regular basis we receive phone calls from people who ask the church for assistance. I am sure we're not alone in this. Many people are in need and God does call the church and Christ-followers to get engaged.

What gets me though is the spirit of entitlement that some people have. They act as if the sole purpose of the church is to help them. It's one thing to ask for assistance for help with meals or even some of the bills, but you should hear some of the laundry list of things call in to ask for - coke, rubbing alcohol, soups - but not pork, not chicken broth, not anything with this and that. And I know it's not for dietary reasons because they want ham, not bologna, not turkey, hot dogs, but not hamburger meat, etc. Things like that just drive me crazy.

And the craziest thing is, when we show up with food, and don't bring the cokes and the other stuff they "needed", I have been yelled at.

And it is those times that I need to remember why I was doing this in the first place - because the love of Christ compels me to. And it is for Christ, because of Christ, and Christ I was serving. It doesn't matter what the person does - when people are hungry, Christ fed them. Why? Because they were hungry.

The question I wonder about is where did this spirit of entitlement come from?

There is tremendous need around us. God calls us the church to engage and get involved with the poor.

We try to do that by working with agencies that are better suited and equipped to help people for the long haul. They are best suited to help people get back on their feet.

TPC currently partners with CCA with the Kid's Eat Free Program where thousands of meals have been served to kids who would have otherwise gone hungry this summer, we have offered our facility to CCA to send social workers to process and assess needs of families, monthly we have a group of people going up to Denton State School to love and spend time with adults with developmental disabilities.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. There is great need all around us.

I pray that God will grant to us the wisdom to know how best to start tackling the problems that our community faces.