The Entitlement Culture Strikes Again

After my freshman year in college, I worked for Little Caesar's pizza.  I was a delivery boy.

It was a hard job.  I made minimum wage which was around $4.25/hour.  I got $.75 per delivery (I guess they figured that covered gas, wear and tear on the car, etc) and tips, which didn't amount to much at all.  I had to deal with people that didn't have the least amount of respect for the guy who showed up to deliver their pizza.  I had to deal with traffic.  I had to deal with all kinds of stuff.

I know that minimum-wage jobs are rough.  That's why most of us try to find other lines of work to do.  So, I'm not knocking the person working minimum-wage jobs.

I am, however, upset at the entitlement mentality I saw on the news yesterday.

The fast-food worker strike where workers were chanting, "We can't live on $7.25" was all over the news the other day.  Now, I agree.  It's tough to live on $7.25/hour.  I'm not disagreeing at all.

But here is the question:  who cares?

Before you get all angry at me for asking that question, let me back up and lay a foundation for what I mean.  Here in America, we are shifting more and more to an entitlement mentality.  For thirty years, we've been giving out participation trophies to kids who do little more than show up to practice and games.  We've been promoting kids from grade to grade even when they couldn't do the work.  We've been lavishing compliments and praise on kids and young adults for simply doing what they were supposed to do.

In other words, the word "earn" has been lost.  It has been replaced with the word "deserve."  Now, people don't earn things.  They deserve things.  And that was what was on display on the news.

These days, people don't earn a paycheck.  They deserve a paycheck.  And when that paycheck is less than what they "deserve", it is unjust.  Never mind what they have earned.  Now, it's simply all about what we deserve.

Nowhere in the news was there any discussion of workers doubling their workload, doubling their output, doubling their investment in their job so that they will EARN $15/hour.  Folks, here is how the business world works:

A business wants to increase its profit margin.  That's what good businesses do.  Therefore, they look for people who, by hiring them on, will bring in MORE income than they are taking.  For example, a worker that earns $7.25 an hour, after insurance, workers' comp, etc probably costs the business $12/hour.  So, in order for that business to need you, you have to bring in more than $12/hour in revenue for you to be worth them bringing you on.

If you are taking $12/hour from the company in wages, and by your work ethic and output are only bringing in $10/hour, you are a liability.  You are a bad hire.  You need to be fired.

If I were the manager of a McDonalds, I would ask the striking employees one question:  "If I double your pay to $15/hour, will you double your productivity so that we see double profits coming in here?"

Then I would ask a second question.  "If your productivity DOESN'T double, and therefore you are not earning $15/hour, will you consent to being fired?"

I would ask questions like, "In order to earn the $15/hour you are wanting me to pay you, are you going to provide such exceptional customer service that we see twice as many repeat customers in a given week?  Will you make phone calls to friends and relatives and acquaintances to come eat at our restaurant, translating into double the profits?  Will you double your efforts to clean the restrooms, clean the dining area, move twice as fast to get peoples' orders to them?  Will you show up early for your shift and leave only when the job is done, regardless of the time?  Will you go out and get customers, bringing in their dollars, so that I can be justified in paying you $15/hour?"

But that discussion will never take place.  Why?  Because America is an entitled nation.  The workers demanding $15/hour, most likely, aren't even thinking about doubling their productivity and therefore EARNING $15/hour.  The word "earn" isn't even on the table right now.  The only word on the table now is "deserve."

There is no discussion about the true nature of things- that businesses hire people who will help and advance their business.  They don't hire people in order to help them out.  They hire people who will help them do business, help grow their business, and help them increase profits.  If workers are taking more in payroll than they are generating in productivity, the business will go belly-up.  There will be no more jobs for anyone.  Businesses can only afford to hire people who will EXPAND their business.

So, again, I ask the question:  who cares?  If you can't live on $7.25/hour, work two jobs.  Live simply.  Find another job that pays more.  You don't DESERVE anything.  You EARN what you have.  If you don't like what you are earning, make arrangements to earn more.

Like I said before, I've worked minimum-wage jobs.  I hated them.  That's why I don't work them anymore.  But minimum-wage can't be based on what people need.  It can only be based on what people earn.  We have to slay this entitlement mentality that is growing like cancer in our society right now; it will destroy us as a culture and will rob us of the character-building first steps of employment that all of us have to take. 

And in the end . . . . it all stays here

I heard the news on Friday- R.J. Corman had died.

For those of you that aren't from this part of the world, R.J. Corman was a big name here in Central Kentucky.  He was a quiet man with a great mind for business who built up a great company, employing 1100 people and bringing economic prosperity to this area.  He was very generous- donating lots of money to various causes, establishing Nicholasville's first hospital among other things.

He had photos taken with high school students, high school athletes, and from what I can tell, was a very good man.

I drove over past his property the other day on my way to Wilmore.  It was still here.  Now, it belongs to someone else.

King Solomon realized this 4000 years ago.  He wrote about it in the book of Ecclesiastes- his masterpiece on the meaning of life.  He wrote "I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless." (Ecclesiastes 2:8-9)

In the end, everything we work for simply becomes someone else's property.  Someone else will benefit from the work of our hands, from our amassing of wealth and property, from all of the stress and the shopping and the purchasing and all the other stuff that goes with it.  We die.  It all stays here.

I was sitting on my back porch, thinking how grateful I was to be the owner of my house and land.  Then it hit me, "I wonder how many people have owned this very piece of land?"  Probably quite a few.  They're gone.  The land is still here.  I'm the owner now, and when I'm gone, someone else will own it.

In the end . . . .  it all stays here.

Whether we are rich or poor, it all stays here.

All of Kim Kardashian's property and money will someday belong to someone else.  All of Bill Gates' property and money will someday belong to someone else.  And, like Solomon observes, who knows whether that person will be wise or a fool?   

So, the next question we must ask is, "Why do we knock ourselves out to acquire things that we can't keep?  Why do we hold property and money and possessions in such high regard?"  It's all meaningless, like Solomon observes.  It all goes to someone else.

In the end . . . . it all stays here.

If you want to get REALLY cynical about it, we are basically little fleas claiming ownership over parts of the dog they inhabit.  In reality, they don't own the dog.  They don't own anything.  They live, claim ownership, and then they die . . . . and another flea takes its place, claiming ownership, living, and then dying . . . .  and another flea takes its place, and the cycle continues.  

If we could truly gain this perspective, I believe we would live very differently.

We would be less impressed by someone's bank account.

We would be less impressed by someone's larger house.

We would be less impressed by the glitz and glam paraded in front of us by the media 24/7.

We would be less desirous of material gain, realizing that we are simply managers of God's property for a very little while.

We would be more aware of Who the owner truly is.  

See, there is not one thing on this planet that I can honestly call, "Mine."  Not one thing.  Not my house, not my car, not my money, not my clothes, not my cell phone . . . .  nothing.  Not one single solitary thing.  Because one day I will be gone.  It will still be here.

In the end . . . .  it all stays here.

God is the only one who can truly say "Mine."  He owns it all.  It's all His.  Every dollar, every square inch of real estate, every mountain, every molecule of water, every atom of hydrogen- EVERYTHING.  It's all His.  When we realize this, I truly believe we will live much simpler, humbler, generous lives.  

It really makes no difference what we believe on this subject.  We all live, we all die, and all our stuff just stays here.

So, knowing this fact, we can live wisely or we can live foolishly.  The choice is up to us.  The only things that we can carry with us into eternity are the things we've done to bring glory to Jesus Christ. The Bible calls this, "Storing up treasure in heaven."  That is the only thing we take with us.  That is the only thing that truly belongs to us.

Every generous gift to another human being is a treasure that will matter for eternity.

Every prayer said for a hurting person is a treasure that will matter for eternity.

Every time you share your faith with a non-Christian person is a treasure that will matter for eternity.

Every act of love done selflessly is a treasure that will matter for eternity.

Every worship song you truly sing to God, every uncool person you stand up for, every orphan you adopt, every widow you write a letter to, every time you open your home to provide hospitality to lonely people- it is a treasure that will matter for eternity.

Every welcoming smile on a Sunday morning at church is a treasure that will matter for eternity.

Every honest answer you give, even when it hurts, is a treasure that will matter for eternity.

There are multitudes more that I could list.  When I see those things, it grieves my soul to see so many people running after things that will simply stay here when they die, not realizing that they could have treasure that matters for eternity for a lot less.

Because in the end . . . . it all stays here.

All, except of course, the things that will matter for eternity.  That's where the true wealth and treasure is.     

Why I Stopped Believing in Evolution

When I was in high school and college, I was an evolutionist.

I was thoroughly schooled in the fine points of Darwinism, from the Stanley Miller experiment showing amino acids coming together in the "primordial soup" to the embryo drawings of Haeckel to the moth in England during the Industrial Revolution mutating to change colors against the dust-covered trunks of trees.

Furthermore, I was taught that every scientist and especially every thinking person believed evolution to be fact.  The only people who didn't believe in Darwin's theory of the origin of life were wild-eyed fundamentalists that believed the earth was still flat and that the sun orbited the earth.  I must also make the disclaimer that micro AND macroevolution were not differentiated- evidence for microevolution was passed off as evidence for macroevolution and abiogenesis, which in my opinion was intellectually dishonest.

Following my teaching, I scoffed at any attempt to bring creationism or intelligent design to the table.  I had been vaccinated against such anti-intellectualism.  Creationists were obviously living in the 18th-century and probably still rode in horse-drawn carriages. 

Needless to say, I was a hard sell.  It must have taken a lot of convincing and years and years of proof to persuade me to leave the atheistic notion of unguided natural selection and mutation leading to the presence of life, right?

Actually, no.  It was a funeral that changed my thinking.

In 1996, my senior year at Centre College, I was taking an advanced biochemistry and molecular biology course where we were studying in detail the miracle of DNA.  I had thoroughly studied the double-helix formation and the four bases (A,T,C, and G) that made up the genetic language that dictated the blueprint of the person or animal.  I studied the replication of DNA and the total miracle going on constantly in the nucleus of each cell.

Then, my grandfather died.

I remember standing behind his casket at his funeral, waiting to enter the church building for the funeral to begin.  All of a sudden it hit me- here was a man made up of 75 trillion cells.  He has all the parts of a living being- a brain, a digestive system, arms, legs, etc- and his cells are full of DNA.  He has all the parts that my education had told me are essential to life, yet he is lying here dead in front of me.  Therefore, I surmised, life has to be greater than the sum total of the material parts of a body.

There had to be something, I concluded, that left my grandfather when he died.  Something immaterial.  Nothing had changed physically in my grandfather from his last moment alive to his first moment dead.  He hadn't lost his heart or his brain or any other PART.  However, one moment he was alive and the next moment he was dead.

So, I began asking my friends who were diehard evolutionists what that non-material thing was.  What was it that left my grandfather so that one moment he was alive and the next moment he was dead?  No one could answer me.  One honest person, who is a professional biochemist, told me that the best thing he had to offer is that we are bags of chemicals, and when those chemicals are used up, we die.  While I appreciated his honesty, that didn't sound very convincing.  Certainly not enough to satisfy my curiosity.

I then began to ask my friends, "At what point in the story of the world did life enter the picture?  What was the particular combination of chemical reactions that moved non-living matter to living, breathing LIFE?" 

No one can answer me this question. 

And no one will be able to answer that question.  Because there is no answer to that question.

We can't concoct enough chemical reactions or put enough parts together to make life happen.  Life is imparted, not created.  Life is given from one living being to another.  That's the way human life happens- a living mother and a living father impart life to a baby.  For all of our intelligence and scientific advancement, we cannot make life out of non-life. 

Therefore, if we move back in time, there has to be an uncreated, eternal Being that was the first imparter of life.  This Being is known as God.  The eternal God, uncreated and sovereign, imparted life to the earth.  He created all the structures necessary for life, and then breathed the breath of life into the world.  Look around you- all around you you see living beings imparting life to other living beings:  human babies in the hospital, mother birds laying eggs and hatching new baby birds, horses giving birth to young.  All of these have one thing in common- life was imparted to the young by another living being. 

There is no chemical reaction that can impart life.  There is no assembling of right structures and right chemicals and right information that can spontaneously transform non-living elements into a living, breathing, replicating being. 

This is why I stopped believing in an atheistic, unguided, random mutation natural selection explanation for the beginning of life.  Life doesn't spontaneously generate.  It never has and it never will.  Do I believe in mutation?  Yes.  Do I believe things change over time?  Sure.  Those things, however, don't explain life.  It is intellectually dishonest to look at the similarity between chimpanzees and humans and jump to the conclusion that life originated by non-living matter spontaneously becoming living matter. 

Anyway, that's my story of movement from one thoroughly schooled in abiogenesis and evolution to my belief that life is a product of an eternal, uncreated, living Being who imparted life to this world.