Deserving

Seth Godin asked the other day on his blog: Do you deserve the luck you've been handed? The place you were born, the education you were given, the job you've got? Do you deserve your tribe, your customer base, your brand?

Wisely he answered that none of us deserve what we get at all. Especially people who have great opportunities. I had those who have great talents, great jobs, families, living situations, health and wealth. None of us deserve any of these things.

I remember a friend of mine saying, when I inherited what was a substantial amount of money in our terms, 'You deserve it.' I didn't respond, 'No, I don't,' but I should have.

God gives us the gifts, the talents, the lifestyle. He plants us in a certain place and offers us all manner of opportunities and choices. Yes, there's an element of taking up the opportunities, making the most of the gifts, but in no way do we deserve what we're given in this life. (And of course that includes those whose life is much less pleasant.)

Why God chooses one person to have talents and another not, one person to have a good family and another a mess, one person to father healthy children and another to father ones with all manner of illnesses is something God doesn't tell us, and won't, at least in this life.

Godin finishes his short post with this comment: The question shouldn’t be, “do you deserve it.” I think it should be, “what are you going to do with it now that you've got it?"

As always he's primarily thinking of the business/marketing world. But his comments are just as applicable to life in general.