I thought Humpty Dumpty was just a nursery rhyme. You know, that big egg who sat on a wall, but had a great fall. Turns out he's got a lot of company these days. Sitting on a high wall. Smashed by a big fall.
Take one of the world's most powerful financial figures, for example - in a $3,000-a-night Manhattan hotel suite one night, in a tough New York jail the next night. He stands accused of serious sexual violation of a hotel maid. While these accusations must yet be proven in a court of law, they resonate with a reputation for mixing power with sexual aggression.
But his story is only the latest high-profile story of a powerful man who has taken a precipitous Dumpty crash. They are athletes...politicians...financial high-rollers...even prominent men in ministry.
At the root is a time-bomb mindset identified by a man who knows this scenario all too well - Tiger Woods. After his darkest secrets spilled out of the closets for all the world to see, he said: "I convinced myself that normal rules didn't apply. I felt I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled."
Entitlement. The gateway to moral disaster. "My position means the rules don't apply to me. I have a right to go out of bounds." The Jewish king Uzziah had led his nation to a new pinnacle of greatness, all the while, deeply reliant on God. Until "he became successful" and "his pride became his downfall." He walked into the temple and began to take privileges that God had clearly given only to His priests. Like Icarus flying too close to the sun, Uzziah came crashing down.
Even the great King David must have felt he had won so many victories and done so much good that he was entitled to sex with the wife of a trusted friend. His life was never the same.
It's all too easy to succumb to that feeling of entitlement. Some feel entitled because of the position they've achieved...some because of the pressures they face...some because of the pain they're going through. It can be a high-flying leader, a lonely wife, a much-loved pastor, or a very busy, very tired man. Entitled to some relief...some attention...some affection...some stolen pleasure...some reward...a spiritual "day off." And it is those detours at Entitlement Junction where lives and families and reputations and ministries are ripped apart.
God really is "no respecter of persons." And, as Warren Wiersbe says, "A lifetime of obedience will not buy you one hour of disobedience." Just ask King David.
God's made it clear that "your sin will find you out." He loves you too much to let you keep getting away with what will ultimately destroy you. We have to build our walls high around the places where we're vulnerable. And fall to our knees in repentance where we've strayed out of bounds - before any more damage is done.
Sins of entitlement are not just a harmless "three-hour tour." They are a surging tide that will carry you - and those you love - right onto the rocks.