“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
– Declaration of Independence
There are a lot of us that have read these words. There are even some of us that can quote this particular phrase. How many of us have actually sat down and taken the time to think about and evaluate this phrase?
The portion of this phrase that I would like to focus on is “they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights”. How many of us actually understand this phrase? It is such a small portion but holds such profound truth. Our rights come from our Creator. They come from God. If you truly understand that then you also understand that we lend the government a small portion of our rights to do the limited things we have asked them to do. This means that we do not get our rights from the government or through legislation, we get them from God. They come from Him directly to us. Why is this important? It is important to understand that we are given the rights and freedom to decide our own destiny. To understand that not only can those basic rights we have been given by our Creator not be legislated away but that man cannot legislate new rights.
“We hold from God the gift which includes all others. This gift is life—physical, intellectual, and moral life. But life cannot maintain itself alone. The Creator of life has entrusted us with the responsibility of preserving, developing, and perfecting it. In order that we may accomplish this, He has provided us with a collection of marvelous faculties. And He has put us in the midst of a variety of natural resources. By the application of our faculties to these natural resources we convert them into products, and use them. The process is necessary in order that life my run its appointed course.
“Life, faculties, production – in other words, individuality, liberty, property – this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it.
“Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws [for their protection] in the first place.”
– Frederic Bastiat
When you understand that your rights come directly from God it gives a magnificent power. It gives you the strength and courage to press forward and blaze your own path. You will not end up sitting around waiting for somebody else to come up with a solution to problems. You will solve problems yourself. This applies not only to the personal problems you experience but even those of your family and neighborhood.
We as a people need to get beyond the point of “oh the government will just come in and fix this.” That is not what God has intended. He wants us to take the rights and abilities He has given us to solve the problems ourselves. When disaster strikes, we should turn to our neighbors and ask where we can help. We need to help each other out as individuals and not wait for the possibility of somebody else to swoop in and make it all better.
I leave you with this question. How can the knowledge of where our rights truly come from create not only a personal impact but a community impact as well?
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