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"What rights do I have as a victor? Honestly, the only answer that puts me in a place where expectation doesn’t lead to offense is, “I HAVE NO RIGHTS!” Maybe it’s just me, but thinking I have God-given rights puts me in a place of thinking I’m entitled."
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 206.
I believe the crux to the problem of our Victim-Based Society today is the issue of rights. We are so fortunate to live in a country that was formed on the amazing principle of freedom as a right that is granted by none other than God Himself. That foundation isn't the problem. It is what we have done to twist that foundation in ways that work to benefit the individual rather than the community that has made rights such a victim laced proposition in our society today.
It is when the individual finds offense that their rights have been infringed upon that the issue of entitlement becomes such a powerful force in their life. Entitlement comes with such a demanding spirit. Entitlement is never really satisfied so offense continues to happen. The view that the personal rights of the victim are being continually squashed at every turn is confirmed in the eyes of the entitled. This kind of thinking pits one person against another. That causes disunity and ultimately victimization. Those who are entitled eventually come to the point where they are willing to victimize others as they fight for their rights in ways only a free country can ever allow.
Salman Rushdie puts it this way. "Nobody has the right to not be offended. That right doesn't exist in any declaration I have ever read. If you are offended it is your problem, and frankly lots of things offend lots of people. I can walk into a bookshop and point out a number of books that I find very unattractive in what they say. But it doesn't occur to me to burn the bookshop down. If you don't like a book, read another book. If you start reading a book and you decide you don't like it, nobody is telling you to finish it. To read a 600-page novel and then say that it has deeply offended you: well, you have done a lot of work to be offended."
Yet that's where many of us are in today's Victim-Based Society. We are doing a lot of work to be offended. We feel we have the right to be offended and are entitled to compensation for that offense. We are working really hard at being offended and that is destroying the very fabric of our nation today.
Paul in the Bible dealt with the issue of rights, entitlement and offense with the Church in Corinth. Check out today's Bible reading with me.
Since we have planted spiritual seed among you, aren’t we entitled to a harvest of physical food and drink? If you support others who preach to you, shouldn’t we have an even greater right to be supported? But we have never used this right. We would rather put up with anything than be an obstacle to the Good News about Christ. 1 Corinthians 9:11-12 (NLT)
Paul is 100% correct. He has every right to be supported for the work he was doing with the people in Corinth. He was entitled to support in ways the people of that city had supported others in the past. Paul could have demanded that support and was on solid legal and ethical ground to do so. Yet Paul took a different tact. He decided that he was going to do something completely unheard of and radical by all comparison. He decided to abandon his rights for the good of all those he was called to serve. Now that's a victor's way of approaching the issue of victim thinking if I have ever seen one.
Reality is that in this life, we have no rights. You see, rights come to those who are citizens of a nation. If you are not a citizen of a country than the basic rights afforded by that nation aren't yours to claim. Believers aren't citizens of the United States of America. We aren't citizens of the planet earth. We are citizens of a place we haven't even seen yet - a place that is so much superior to this place. A place where rights will take on a meaning we couldn't even imagine given our experiences here on this place so much less than what is to come.
Rights? We have not rights because we don't belong here. This isn't our home. The only way we can ever deal with the issue of victim thinking tied to rights, entitlement and offense is to realize that this isn't our home.
This doesn't mean that we are to ignore the basic principles of life when it comes to right and wrong in this life. There is nothing wrong with taking advantage of all the freedoms that have been given us in this country. What is wrong is to let offense be what controls us to the point where our entitlement drives us to be the instigators of victimization the way that victim thinking actions so often do. Our job isn't to be a doormat to the rest of the world. Our job is to keep offense as fart from our daily lives as possible.
I guarantee that something will happen today that will offend you. What are you going to do with that offense? Are you going to let offense drive you to have an entitled spirit? I sure hope that isn't what happens to you today. Why? Because it is when we are entitled that our victor status is threatened so.
As God's Child you have a right to be loved by this father the way He wants to love you. That's it. That's the only right we have. We don't have the right to tell God how to love us. We don't even have the right to be offended when He fails in our eyes to love us properly. We only have the right to be called His Child and to receive the life of a victor He has made for us.
As you go about your day, don't let rights get in the way of who you are. That's so much easier said than done - I know. God is there empowering you to find your way through the Victim-Based Society that is working overtime to get you to join the ranks of entitled victims fighting for rights they hold so dear in their lives. Don't let that the world co-opt you in a way where your status as a victor is challenged. Let God lead you into a greater and greater realization of who you are. This is the only way your freedom can be maintained as the world works to limit you in victim thinking ways through offense, entitlement and rights.
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