The saying goes, we get what we deserve.
While these words typically have negative connotations, the flipside is that while we may deserve what we get, we are not necessarily entitled to it.
To explain the difference between deserving and entitled, let's go right to the roots.
Deserve derives from the "old French deservir (Modern French desservir) 'deserve, be worthy of, earn, merit,' from Latindeservire 'serve well.'"
We earn what we deserve by service, a life of giving to others, a life of devotion to the people and causes we care about and support.
Deserving depends upon our own giving.
Entitlement, on the other hand, coming from the verb entitle (which originally meant to give a title to a book or chapter), took on the meaning in the 15th century of "to bestow (on a person) a rank or office" in the sense of "to give (someone) 'title' to an estate or property, hence to give that person a claim to possession or privilege."
Entitlement depends upon another person's giving to us.
We are, therefore, not entitled to anything. It is only by the grace of others, and ultimately by the grace of God, that we receive.
And we earn our gifts, and ultimately, our grace by giving generously where our gifts are . . . deserved.
Put another way, by John Milton in Paradise Lost, God made us "just and right, Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall."
The choice is ours, "The mind is its own place, and in itself/Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n."
This post also appears on the Tom Aplomb blog.