En(d)titlement: Trade a Culture of Shame for a Life Marked by Grace

by Chuck Ammons

They aren’t looking for an expert. They’d be thrilled with a called-alongside friend.

The hope of the human race will not be found in the ditches of subscription or suspicion. It will only be found in submersion. Submersion is when we are fully connected, as one diverse body, where nobody’s idolized as the final say on the matter, and no one is set aside as a fool. There is only one hero and His name is Jesus.

I remember when I was writing my first book, I felt like there were whole worlds that were within me bursting to get out. I met with a friend of mine who is a published author over coffee to get some advice. After about 45 minutes, and 27 book ideas later, he sat back, smiled, and lovingly challenged me. He said, “Just remember, you don’t have to be the whole symphony, and you’re not the entire concert. This moment that we’re in is just one movement of the song God is writing. And we need the distinct notes of your one instrument to play in harmony with everything that’s going on around you. Just play your part.” I remember the joy that I had in that moment knowing that I’m a part of something much bigger than myself. It dawned on me that I will never grow to maturity in isolation. I’m just a part. But I also have a part…and it needs to be discovered and played with confidence in harmony with all of the beautiful melodies around me.

There are no experts who hold all of the answers. But there is a conductor named Jesus and a global symphony of people of every age and life stage tuning up their instruments. If you stop right now, you can hear it. All it takes are kids willing to stop talking and listen.

We are not transformed by the brutality of threat, but by the beauty of the love revealed in Jesus Christ.

If we choose to believe, even subconsciously, that God rewards those who please Him with a life free of pain, we will turn our lives into an exhausting treadmill where we strive to run hard enough to qualify for grace. We will misread every trial as if God is coming to malign us where in reality He has been graciously drawing near in broken situations He didn’t cause to refine us.

We must remember the glory that is to come is not getting our own mansion in heaven on a lawn of gold bricks. There’s a reason why when we get to heaven, we come and we take our crowns and lay them at His feet. It’s because the treasure that we’ve waited for all of our lives to behold is nothing other than Him. If you have Jesus and you never see another treasure in this lifetime, goodness gracious, you have JESUS! Forever, “I am my Beloved’s and He is mine” (see Song of Solomon 6:3).

We have a tendency to hyper focus on our problems, believing “I’ll be able to help others once fill-in-the-blank is fixed.” When this happens, our problems, not our mission, becomes our obsession and it paralyzes us. We can never arrive.

Right now, someone in your crowd feels harassed. Someone in your crowd feels helpless. And God sent you to pass by them as a carrier of His hope. Here’s the craziest thing. When we choose to become conduits to help others, we experience healing in our own hearts.

Grace could be defined as coming alive to the kindness and adoration of a God who does not give us the bad we deserve.

In an age where everyone longs to receive a fresh word that will give them peace, what could happen if we would actually believe a finished work that says it’s ours already?

My God rules over the heights, yet draws near to the depths of my heart.

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“The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.” Rev. 21:24-26

our greatest hindrance to revival isn’t everyone else’s stances, but the failure to serve as stewards over our own souls.

Sabbath is a matter of surrender. Will we trust God enough to stop “playing God” over our own schedules?

Does it bring rest? Does it delight? Does it restore? Does it refresh?

Our goal isn’t to populate a universal cheat sheet of “do’s and don’ts” to hold over people’s heads. The goal is to delight again.

You aren’t the Savior of the world, your family, or your job. We already have one of those and He’s really good at what He does. You don’t need to be available all the time. You need to be gloriously unavailable.

I encourage you to blow up the limitations you’ve been handed of what “quiet time” needs to look like and simply ask: What activities inspire me and give me life? What places or settings make me feel like I can relax and breathe? What times of the day do I feel most energized? How do I share my heart with my closest friends? If I had the resources and permission to do anything, where would I be? What could all of this look like in my daily life with God?

We’ve been made to not only experience freedom from shame and entitlement, but to live all of our entire lives in the land of grace and gratitude. The earth is groaning for the sons and daughters of God to rise up, to know who we are, and to invite them into a life worth living.