“I’d love to get together with you Saturday, but I have to go to my son’s baseball game.”
“Thanks for the invitation to go fishing Sunday morning, but I have to go to church.”
“I can’t do it today, I have to work!”
“I have to …”
Considering those statements, how do you think I really feel about the baseball game, church, and work? Not too excited, right? Each one sounds like a chore or, at the very least, something to be tolerated or endured.
One of my favorite influencers, Michael Hyatt, has addressed the idea of language several times on his podcast. He referenced his own Ah-ha moment in telling a friend that he couldn’t meet with him because he had to fly somewhere to speak at a conference. In this life-and-language-changing moment, he realized that thousands of speakers would do almost anything to speak at that conference. He had been blessed with an incredible opportunity! Now, instead of saying, “I have to,” he says, “I get to.”
That, my friends, is a powerful realization. What might our lives be like if we recognized the incredible opportunities before us? Some opportunities come in the form of responsibilities, but “I get to” even re-frames how we see responsibilities.
One day that son won’t be playing ball — or some other activity — and the chance to share in it will be past. What an opportunity each activity is for a small window in time!
We get to to join together with God’s people on Sundays to worship the true and living God, to build relationships that strengthen us in our walk with Him, and to be equipped for significant ministry that makes a difference in our communities.
So many people around the world are unemployed. The fact that some of them have chosen to be that way makes a job that helps to provide for our families no less of an opportunity for us.
How might our lives be different if we chose to speak of opportunities? In saying, “I get to,” rather than, “I have to,” we are:
1. Taking responsibility for our own choices. No one is forcing church, work, or whatever else on us. Not even God. We are choosing our lives.
2. Communicating value to those affected. Our families, church families, and coworkers will know that we value our involvement with them.
3. Training ourselves to be thankful. We can’t control what others say to us, but we can control what we say to others and to ourselves. Both gratitude and grumbling are contagious and self-perpetuating.
Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. (Philippians 2:14-16)
Our lives — and our words — matter to God. Choose your life by choosing the right ones.
