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The Answer to "Rights."


Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13) 


            I'll admit right off, this thought was inspired by my Word of the Day thoughts about rights. Everyone wants his/her rights. People demand their right to live as they choose, and they demand their right to be seen as wonderful, loving people as they demand their right to live as they choose. I'm one of everyone. I want to be "treated like a human being, too," even if that means you don't get to have all the rights that you think you should have.
         In my Word of the Day rant, I said that God has the answer to this problem of rights. He does. His answer is....love and die. His great commandment is to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Today's passage makes it clear. Truly great love, real love, involves being willing to lay down our lives for our friends.  It means killing our egos without any guarantee that the "friend" will give them  ER (emotional or ego resuscitation). We can and should hope to be loved back. We can and should hope that the person to whom we give up our rights will return them to us... but there is no guarantee.
           In the past, I've faced some circumstances in which I felt compelled to die to myself in some specific way. One such battle took place for several weeks, every time I walked across the parking lot to work. I remember thinking that I could either die to myself a little that day, or I could  spend eternity dying. Those were the choices. I suspect that my choice to die a little each of those days was entirely self-serving. Who would want to "not die" for thirty years, and then spend eternity dying? But it was hard. It was hard because I was right. 
            I'm not being overly egotistical here, my coworkers agreed with me. No one should be treated  the way we were. No one should be treated the way people treat one another. You shouldn't be treated as badly as I treat you. I shouldn't be treated as badly as you treat me. The only way that I can treat you the way you should be treated is if I love you enough to not demand that you treat me as I should be treated - and that is so very hard.
          I wish I could say, "well, from now on I'm going to treat you the way you should be treated." I wish I could say that I'm sorry I haven't treated you as well as I should have. I am sorry, but am I sorry enough to become your slave? Do I love you enough to die to make you happy? I'm sorry, I'm not there yet, but I know Someone who did it. Not surprisingly, He's hated for it.

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