It’s My Right

It is right for me to be angry, even to death. Jonah 3:9b

We’ve done a fairly good job of getting people in this marvelous Country of ours to recognize that we have “rights.” The Declaration of Independence says you have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The United States Constitution gives you the right to have a Government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” I have a right to consult an attorney if I am arrested, and I have the right to carry a concealed weapon if I have a license. I have, by law, the right to worship as I please, and by calling to make that worship an act of total obedience to the LORD of Heaven and Earth.

Good Christian folk have brought that “rights” concept across the threshold of the Church house. While we can’t find any documentation to support our ideas, we are confident we have rights regarding the behavior of other believers, and when someone offends me, I have a right to be angry. When someone whispers unkind things behind my back, or speaks positively of that which I do not approve, I have the right to “trash” them in my Bible Study class, and share the news far and wide.

I like Jonah. When I was a kid I was enamored by the narrative of the big fish, and poor Jonah being spit out like a sunflower hull. I had no real appreciation for Jonah’s anger when he did not get his way, until I discovered as I grew older the insensitivities we have toward God and others. Jonah was so angry at God’s kindness and mercy he would rather die than admit his hard heart had separated him from an understanding of God’s grace.

I know people like Jonah in the 21st century Church. They would rather wither away (spiritually) than admit they are angered by God’s willingness to forgive. They harbor resentment that God is “slow to anger and abundant in llovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.” (Jonah 4:2)

Christmas is not the time to focus on caring for others. Every day is the time to focus on lloving the brethren, caring for one another, forgiving one another, and establishing clear channels for edifying one another as the number of days before His next coming grows smaller.

This Christmas season is a great time (because it is NOW) to stop wrangling over your right to anything. Instead embrace the gift, a Child born, a Son given. Establish your ability to live under authority, the authority of one who is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Start focusing on forgiving because you have been forgiven, lloving because you have been lloved, giving because you have been given eternal life, which now is and forever will be.