What are your rights?

"It's a privilege, not a right." That was the mantra of our Children's Ministry Director at my old church. At first it seemed a bit weird to me, telling kids that they should be have because it was a privilege to be there, not something that was guaranteed. Don't they all have the right to be in the room and hear about Jesus? She didn't mean that they didn't have that right, just that if they were misbehaving they also had a right to bear the consequences of their behavior.... to be forced to sit in "big church" with their parents. *Gasp!*

In our country, we tend to think of everything in terms of rights. It is a part of our culture. "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness..." That's what our country was founded on, right? Our unalienable rights?

Now, I'm not here to argue specifics of what those rights are, or what they aren't. But sometimes we get so caught up in life thinking that we have a right to something that we forget that it isn't a right at all. It's a privilege.

We think it's our right to be happy. It's our right to have the things we want. It's our right to have a job that not only pays us enough but fulfills us. It's our right to have a perfect relationship with our significant other, our family members and our friends. It is a right to feel good, all the time.

In reality these things aren't rights at all, and viewing them as such only makes us live in discontentment.

When we get caught up in these things, we aren't happy until we feel like we have gotten what we deserve, what is owed to us. This discontentment leads to a whole host of other negative side effects: anger, frustration, and eventually anxiety, all because we feel like we should have something that we don't. We live in discontentment.

The Bible tells us that we should live in an opposite way: with thankfulness. Not that "Now what do you say?" type of forced thank you that we tell kids to say. But the real heart felt gratitude that comes from knowing that we just received something that we will enjoy whether we deserved it or not.

I think a lot about Philippians 4:6 that says:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Maybe it's because when I'm anxious and praying about it, this is the first thing that pops into my mind. And usually it is followed with something like, "But God, I don't feel grateful. I'm nervous, anxious that things won't turn out my way. That I'll get the short end of the stick. That I won't get what I'm entitled to." Sometimes I'll throw in a plea that God would teach me to be grateful, because obviously I don't know how to be.

Looking back, I can almost always pinpoint something I think I deserve, a right I have that I feel is being overlooked, that is making me anxious. I should be treated well at work. I deserve to have all the possessions I want, and the money to pay for them without worrying. I deserve happiness. I deserve to be entertained.

In reality most things I see as rights are just things that I want. I assign the title of rights just so that I don't feel like I'm being selfish. I should instead be thankful for all the many things I have been given, things I don't deserve. I should stop seeing things as benefits that I deserve, but as things that I would like to have, and live a life grateful for the things I do have. Even if I never get all the things I want.