Life is very confusing. I feel as if I live in an upside-down world. What am I to believe or not believe? A drove of information surrounds me but very little truth. Everything seems to be relative based on who it benefits. Entitlement consumes our culture. We each shout loudly, “My rights are more important than your rights.” It seems that whoever shouts loudest, wins. But while we are all looking out for our own rights, what about those who can’t look out for themselves? Who is shouting for them and should we really be shouting at all? Have we ever considered relinquishing our right to always be right.
Society inundates us with every “right” imaginable: Gay Rights, Abortion Rights, Right to Life, Gun Rights, Voting Rights, Civil Rights, Religious Rights, etc., etc. The list goes on and on. No matter where you stand on these issues, I feel compelled to ask, when did we as Americans decide that to promote our own agenda, we had to put everyone else’s down?
Consider setting aside your need to be “right” for just a moment. If we could truly look at our neighbor with compassion and lift up their needs over our own, then most of the wrongs in our world would be overturned. If each of us was more concerned about the wellbeing of others over ourselves, then all our needs would be met. We would have no reason to fight for our rights, because we would each be willing to forfeit our individual rights for another’s benefit.
I’m not saying that we should not stand up for equality. Our Constitution guarantees this and gives our government the responsibility to implement this guarantee. There certainly have been times that people needed to stand up to opposition. I think of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as he peacefully pushed for equal rights for the African American people. He did not however, put down other people’s rights in the process.
Today we have taken our “rights” to an extreme. Why do individual groups feel compelled to state their case demanding to be heard on every single issue? In essence, they each are saying, “Let’s make government force people to give me my rights”, even if it is in opposition to other people’s rights. In other words, “I’m more important than anyone else.”
I’m tired of a selfish, entitlement-minded America. Can we just for once, lay down our swords, our pens, and our Facebook rants? What if we set aside technology to look each other in the eye and see humanity? How can we find joy in our differences instead of vilifying each other? Can we agree to disagree yet still care and respect one another. Is there still a place in our society for listening to understand rather than preparing for our next rebuttal?
Life is all about love.
Rick Warren, pastor and author of The Purpose Driven Life.
Love is setting aside our need to be right for the sake of someone else. It is not a fuzzy, romantic feeling reserved only for those people we like. It is a choice to love even if we disagree, even if we are enemies. Love moves us toward relinquishing our right to always be right.
Our world is so far from this kind of love. But maybe, if each day we choose to voluntarily give up just one of our “rights” for another, we could move in that direction. What if we each said, “Your right is more important than my right. I may disagree with your viewpoint, but I love and care about you anyway”? Maybe all the shouting would die down and we could just enjoy each other for the unique, beautiful people God created us to be.
If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
The words of the Apostle Paul in Philippians 2:1-4 MSG
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