Are You Entitled or Are You Worthy?

WATCHING A PASSION UNFOLD

I watched the movie Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson this weekend. My daughter wanted to visualize Jesus’ suffering given Easter weekend. As we watched she averted her eyes at one point. The imagery of punishing his body shocked her. At one point she told me, ‘Dad I don’t think I can watch this anymore’. I responded with a calm sincere voice, “Baby you should watch it. This story is not a fairy tale. You need to understand exactly what it was liked to be crucified. This is part of your religion.” We know the end of Jesus’ story but forget the path Jesus walked to be worthy of his own ending.

ENTITLEMENT SHOULD BE EARNED

We all know people who believe they have rights to things.

An example of good entitlement is a child’s parental love. Many forget a child’s entitlement to parental love comes only after effort from both child and mother. A child often endures birth canal delivery or forceful removal through cesarean. Post delivery all children have umbilical cords cut. Usually, children are pinched to incite crying. A baby’s first breath often comes with a sudden shock from their first experience of pain (the pinch).

Many forget to truly be entitled to anything in life we must be worthy of it.

EARNING THINGS REQUIRES ADVERSITY

The human condition is unique in the sense our lives always appear to require hard work. Common critiques of unearned privilege like, “Silver Spoon Baby” accurately capture Fredrick Douglass’ famous saying, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” (2)

Personally, I have quite an adverse history. I was abandoned by my biological father at the age of 13. As a child I lived in extreme hardship where my mother often made choices between food or utility bills. As a young adult I deployed to war theaters as a Veteran post 9–11. I was stabbed at 19. I was financially ruined in the housing collapse of 2008. I have been repeatedly betrayed by my closest allies for self-preservation throughout my life. I was bankrupted in 2019 after losing personal money in the very thing I would be indicted for (yes being a personal victim apparently will not protect you from future allegations). My first wife filed for divorce after bankruptcy and willfully evicted us from a home she had enough money to pay for — just to ensure I would have nowhere to go (I couch surfed for quite a long-time post-divorce). I have been relentlessly falsely accused of crimes despite clear evidence identifying other actual perpetuators.

The list goes on…

This is not a sympathy rant. This is a narrative of my life to show you I understand suffering. I know adversity. I am an authority on mistreatment. The important message is,

“After all of these events I emerged to be a man with newfound virtue.”

Whether it was the virtue of forgiveness for betrayal or courage for deployments in the military — a virtue always emerged during my adversity.

On the other side of your adversity is the reward of who will become tomorrow.

For if Jesus in his last breath could utter, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do,” I can forgive them as well. I cannot expect forgiveness at the end of my life if I cannot offer forgiveness during my life.

PROPER PERSPECTIVE MAKES YOU WORTHY

Proper Perspective is essential during adversity. Proper Perspective permitted me to see what was being given to me during each painful moment. My suffering offered a unique hand of compassion to me, but it required me to willingly reach out to grasp it.

In your current pain there is opportunity to reach out and grasp your gift of virtue. Simply settle your senses and ask, “What virtue can I practice during this moment?”

It might only be resilience. None the less, there is always a virtue for you to develop and strengthen during your adversity.

What Practicing Proper Perspective Does:

· It gives a purpose to pain. When a person despairs it is because they conclude there is no point to what they are enduring. If one uses the technique of Proper Perspective the mind adopts a purpose for its struggle.

· It creates meaning to adversity. Enduring continual pain must mean something for us to retain sanity. Where pain is a moment of extreme feeling — adversity is the gnawing perpetuation of discomfort. If you use the technique of Proper Perspective your mind will realize the meaning of your circumstance.

· It teaches you how to draw on new attributes. You cannot use old tools to tackle new problems. As life constantly throws new issues — you will learn new attributes which form you into the person you are to become. You never know who you need to be until that situation happens. Discover who you really are by deploying Proper Perspective to embrace your adversity. There is no greater awakening than a moment which makes you feel like you cannot go on.

Three Ways To Develop Proper Perspective (Use Them)

1. Ask Yourself How Long Will It Last. Assess the value of a behavior by putting into perspective how long the situation will last. Don’t let the past live in the present. There’s no value to that. Your negative emotions are like the weather. It might rain all day but it’s only one day not your entire life. I have experienced very positive moments during very trying times — including being handcuffed and led off to jail. The truth is ten years feels like a day. Ask anyone who passed their 20th anniversary graduating from high school. Time is about perspective.

2. Box Breathe. If you don’t know what this is it’s when you take a deep breath, hold it and slowly let it out. Some trainers in the military teach this technique to people during fire fights. It’s measured in intervals of 4s. This is how I breathe during extreme stress, violent situations or blind-siding events. It allows clear decisive action over impulse knee jerk reactions. This will permit you to work on exercising virtue when the situations present itself. This trains an important asset of the soul called — self composure.

Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad free

3. Cold Shower. Strengthen Will with a flash of cold water during a shower. You will need willpower for moments of pain. You can start in seconds and proceed to minutes. Do small, measured bursts where you are not overwhelmed. The point of this is to train yourself to not impulsively act the moment something upsets you, makes you sad, et cetera. This also trains an important asset of the soul which is — resilience.

The Value of This Philosophy

· Positive Self-Help Interventions can be helpful to reduce depressive symptoms. (3)

· This will lower your stress level instantly when you do this. It is well researched and proven. (4)

· Exposing yourself to voluntary discomfort suggests you will gain improved motivation for personal growth. (5)

IN CLOSING

I do not wish my personal circumstances on anyone. It is for this reason that now I am the ultimate authority on what not to do. My much-anticipated new book “Turning Indictments To Dollars” talks about how to avoid the pitfalls I suffered. If you are accused of something you know you didn’t do — this book will offer you the path which grants you success. Trust me you will want to Sign up for free during the pre-release period to take advantage of unique $0.99 pricing on launch.

Sign up for free to listen free of charge to my chapter in “Many Paths To Profit”. You can pick up a copy of my international best-selling and award winning book, “I Made It Then I Didn’t” as well for a deeper insight.

The concept I teach in this article is free. Some of my personal stories are not free of charge as everything costs something. The techniques I discuss in this article I use. The purpose of reading this is to reveal the other side of adversity. You must endure adversity to be worthy of all the benefits you desire.

If you are experiencing betrayal, pain or hurt in your life, it’s critical you read this. Love can take you through each one of these situations. So can life. Learn the benefits of the Proper Perspective technique today. The technique is not about ignoring the negativity or pretending it’s not there — it’s about recognizing other consequences of adversity besides the negative ones. Follow me for more insightful techniques! Let me know in the comments if this article was helpful.

To Your Knowledge Success!

Sources

1) The life of Christopher Knight Lopez a Professional Hustler turned International Best Seller and Published Author of “I Made It Then I Didn’t”.

2) Fredrick Douglas. The W.E.B. DuBois learning Center. Fredick Douglas Quotes Speech of 1857. Weblink http://www.duboislc.org/html/BlackStruggle.html. Accessed 21 April 2025.

3) Bolier L, Haverman M, Westerhof GJ, Riper H, Smit F, Bohlmeijer E. Positive psychology interventions: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies. BMC Public Health. 2013 Feb 8;13:119. doi: 10.1186/1471–2458–13–119. PMID: 23390882; PMCID: PMC3599475

4) Mellis Yilmaz Blban, et al. “Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal”. Cell Rep Med. 2023 Jan 10;4(1):100895. doi: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100895.

5) Association for Psychological Science. “Embracing Discomfort Can Open Our Minds to New Ideas”. May 18, 2025.

6) Marcus Aurelius. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. The New Translation By Del Ray Kochon. Decameron Books. ISBN 978–1–936767–79–3

Enjoy the read? Reward the writer.

Your tip will go to Christopher Lopez through a third-party platform of their choice, letting them know you appreciate their story.

https://ko-fi.com/chrislopez33885

***

Not a form of investment advice. Please consult a professional registered to give you advice about your individual circumstance. This article is for educational purposes and entertainment purposes only. Please do not email the author about advice on investing or strategies on making investments. Certain elements of this narrative may have been fictionalized to convey message points. This is a work of artistic expression not a narrative of fact. Strictly for entertainment and informational purposes only.

About Christopher: Christopher Knight Lopez is a Professional Hustler turned International Best Seller, Award Winner of the December 2024 prestigious International Impact Book Awards — a premier award program dedicated to celebrating and recognizing the exceptional work of authors around the globe and Published Author of “I Made It Then I Didn’t”. He is also a Co-Author with Kevin “The Shark” Harrington “Many Paths To Profit”. See more at www.christopherklopez.com.

—

This post was previously published on medium.com.

***