A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired in 1965. I watch it at least once every year. I don’t know why I love that thing so much, but maybe because I remember my seven-year-old son Jake laughing his head off every time Snoopy loses control on his ice-skates and goes sailing into the snowbank.
Maybe it’s the classic, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.” I love that scene too. And there’s other moments that are genius and instructive and even convicting.
Take the time Sally tells Charlie Brown all she wants for Christmas is money. When her brother is exasperated Sally whines, “All I want is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share.”
It’s comical because the idea of a little girl like Sally thinking the world owes her anything is comical. It’s absurd.
Or is it? Or does it hit a little too close to home?
You see, if I’m not super careful, I can have that mindset myself. And when I don’t get what I think is my fair share–well then I feel entitled to be indignant, angry and bitter.
This faulty thinking can be as simple as when someone in my house dares to take the last ______ without asking me. It can be when the person in the car in front of me is too distracted to go when the light turns green and now I’m stuck sitting through another cycle of red lights. It can be when I get overlooked for an invitation or recognition of some sort.
All I want is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share.
Those daily examples can be funny but they can also get ugly. But go a little deeper, and this philosophy can get downright dangerous.
It gets dangerous when I think I deserve:
A dream home. A fulfilling job. A long and happy marriage. As many children as I want. Lifelong, loyal friends. A prosperous life. A healthy life. A long life. A perfect life. And an easy death.
And it’s frankly not enough that I get all those things. I want them for every single person I care about as well. And if not? Well, I could question God’s love or goodness. Why would He withhold a single thing I think I have coming to me? All I want is my fair share! I could become indignant, angry and bitter at God.
The proper perspective is not entitlement but gratitude. Always. I must remind myself that every single good thing that I have has been given to me by God, not earned by me. I didn’t choose my own birthplace, genetics, talents or intellect. My ability to walk and talk and think and work did not come from my great effort but from my great Creator. Caring people in my life are also gifts. By His grace I’ve been given these good things (James 1:17).
And it’s important to ponder: some future sad season will not negate all the previous happy times. If tomorrow brings terrible news and my life is changed forever in some heartbreaking way, I will have still been richly blessed with so many good years before for which to be grateful. I hope to anchor myself in that kind of perspective. To not presume that every day will be as good as the last. Rather to be thankful today for each and every simple blessing.
Lord, don’t let me be a Sally Brown. Rather give me the heart of Job who, in spite of going through his own worst-case scenario, trusted You and said,
“Though He slay me, I will hope in Him… The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 13:5, 1:21).
Grateful today,
