“Taking offense is so often a lot of work.” Brant Hansen
Over the past few years, I’ve been on a bit of a journey… a journey towards becoming UNOFFENDABLE. And I am 100% certain that I have not arrived at being UNOFFENDABLE because, well, I still take offense.
At the very beginning of this journey, I was told by my two mentors, Paul Flemming and Brant Hansen that, ‘You can choose to be unoffendable.’ It’s a choice? Wait… seriously? Never thought about it that way. In looking back, I’m not sure why I didn’t realize it was a choice before, but I guess that’s a consequence of constantly being offended… you miss things.
Prior to this journey I’ve been on towards becoming UNOFENDABLE, I was the guy that would take offense at anyone and everyone for pretty much anything and everything. I was generally able to mask my offense, but on more than one occasion, the ugly side of being offended showed up… meaning, anger reared its ugly head.
ENTITLEMENT IS EXHAUSTING.
What I’ve discovered along the way is that at the root of offense is entitlement.
If you offend me, I’m entitled to…
… be angry at you.
… correct you.
… resent you.
… hurt you, maybe not physically, but at least relationally.
… justify my inappropriate response to you.
As I mentioned above, entitlement is exhausting for one primary reason: entitlement is not from God for us. And when we carry things that are not from God for us, well, it will be exhausting in more ways than one.
For today’s purposes, I just wanted you to know that you don’t need to choose that path of being offended anymore. Jesus invites us to something better, dare I say something more beautiful. What’s that? Well, Jesus sums that up in two words: DENY YOURSELF.
There is no place for entitlement (the root of offense) when we are living out Jesus' invitation to DENY YOURSELF.
And to those who choose to DENY THEMSELVES daily, I think you’ll discover a much more restful and peaceful and quiet life.
