What Do You Get to?

My local YMCA emailed a video to its donors recently.

The video depicts memorable moments at summer camp: Children jumping into lakes, playing soccer, zip lining, and eating outside. Kids smiling, doing what they do best at camp—saying things like: “We get to be creative!” as they string beads together during arts and crafts.

Kids next to a ropes course grin and shout, “We get to zipline!”

Or “We get to explore!” as they tromp through the woods.

As two girls jump side-by-side into a giant swimming pool, they call out, “We get to do THIS!”

I couldn’t stop smiling as I watched the kids learning new things. I loved how they loved moment after moment of playing and enjoying being kids.

It made me wish sometimes for that kid-attitude.

What is it like to start the morning knowing a brilliant new day is stretched out before you, a day filled with relationships and laughter and new learning?

There's that feeling at camp drop-off when your parent signs you in, hands over your lunchbox, and you rush off to the playground to see who might be there.

I remember that feeling from being a kid, and from dropping my own son off at camp.

As adults, days stretch before us, too. 

But as we consider each morning what might be coming, the images in our minds may not be as colorful and creative. 

Perhaps we anticipate a day filled with rushing from one thing to the next. Challenges with coworkers. Children who need more than we can give. Too many meetings and too much work piled on our desks. Teens who don’t want to talk to us. 

More stress than we may feel like we can handle.

(And maybe some fun sprinkled in here or there.)

Do you ever have a morning when you wake up and think, I can’t bear the thought of going to work today? 

I do sometimes.

But what if instead if we take these kids’ perspectives?

What if we ask, “What do I GET to do today?”

I get to go make a great living today doing challenging work.

I get to go interact with people I don’t know yet—I wonder who I will meet!

I get to make my own decisions and travel where I want to go.

When I was in South Africa recently, as we drove by thousands of tin shack homes spread in townships across the country. Our tour guide told us that in many of these, families are living 12 or 15 people to a room. Most don't have access to good water, and they have to steal electricity to be able to charge a phone. Many kids end up dropping out of school.

People in those townships would appreciate much of what we get to do.

Such as: I get to brush my teeth and take a shower whenever I want.

I get to eat when I get hungry today.

I get to have an education that positions me for a good job.

I get to use electricity and have easy access to the Internet.

We went to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years. This anti-apartheid activist and the first black president of South Africa said after he was freed, "I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.”

Do not linger, dear ones.

Steal a view of the glorious vista before you.

Your long walk is not ended.

What will you get to do today? 

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