“I have my rights!” She yelled defiantly in my face. She stood her ground, stared wildly at me, and insisted again, “I can do it if I want – I. Know. My. Riiiights!!!” She was correct. I knew that. She had rights. Don’t we all know that?
Aren’t we as Americans filled with this foundational reality of our national identity from our earliest age? Our nation was birthed literally on the demand for rights. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union…” demand our rights!
In light of this, I found myself convicted in my Bible study time. Paul was writing that he had the right to eat or drink anything. Nothing was off limits to him as a Christian, however, “take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.” (1 Corinthians 8:9)
I felt a tug – honestly a tug-of-war really from my own sense of rights – rights I experience because of my freedom in Christ. I know I’m not a slave anymore to sin. I know Christ died to set me free and make me victorious even over death. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and I am not even bound by laws in the Torah that would keep me from eating or drinking anything I want. I am free!
As an American, I have rights listed for me in a document that has established not only this great nation but has been the inspiration for every freedom-loving new nation since 1776. I can drive, vote, live, own, work, and play essentially any way I choose. What a blessing! What a privilege! And what a resistance when I feel that someone may be moving in on my rights!
Like a child clutching a precious toy, I cling to my rights. Fear and panic can come over me if those rights feel threatened. Frustration and indignation can fill me if someone moves in on my space where I keep my rights close by.
So, when faced with a screaming, rights-demanding, person, these truths flashed through my mind, and I really related to her…and then I chuckled.
I looked at her – actually, I got on my knees and looked closely into her red eyes, and said to this little five-year-old, “Yes, sweetie, you have rights. And right now, you can sit and think about how to best use them.” She had hit another child who was also standing next to me, clutching my arm, shaking in tears. I walked with both girls over to the “Time-Out” spot, sat the red-faced one down to calm herself and held the wounded one in my arms.
At what cost did this little girl express her “rights?” At the cost of harming the other girl who 5 minutes ago was her bestie-best friend. Time-Out did the trick and the rights-demanding girl gathered herself and made it right with her friend. I walked them both back out to the swings to play in peace.
That moment gave me pause to reflect on my personal sense of rights – I wouldn’t hit a friend – but in my need to demand what I feel like I deserve, could I harm her? Could my clinging to rights wound someone? Yes. Of course, it could. Instead, I can surrender my rights for the sake of love and loving my neighbor and friends. It’s because of Christ who “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped” that I am free, and it is because of what He did for me, laying down His life – His rights – that I can follow His example and do everything for God’s glory and not for the pleasure of my own rights.
Thank you for stopping by and reading my blog thoughts today! This is an excerpt from the “Corinthians: Love & Light” Bible study. You are welcome to join the study. We meet every other week September-April in person at La Mirada Church or online 6-8:15pm. Click Here for details on this or the current Bible study – if you happen to be reading this after the Corinthians study has concluded.
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