We Are Not Victims Here

Welcome to the very first journal entry of Grace in the Moment! I am still dreaming, and figuring many things out of what all of this will look like, but I do know that this is where I will start. Journal entries. Every week you can expect a new entry in the Journal of Grace in the Moment, where myself, or a monthly guest writer, will share thoughts on an idea impressed on my heart by God, and what His Word has to say about it. God is our Good Shepherd, and His Word, the Bible, is our road map, and as we approach these journal entries together we will look to our Good Shepherd, and the road map He’s given us to navigate the journey of this life, finding His grace at every turn. I so hope you’ll join me, and that we will come out the other side knowing Him more, feeling all the more empowered to make Him known.

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I wonder how much time I have wasted living under the guise that my identity was that of a victim? How many years have I spent living in a position of weakness and not power?

I want to be careful to note that in no way am I approaching this conversation from the vantage point of a curmudgeonly old man, walking around shaking his fist in the air shouting “this generation and their victim mentality…”

I hold space for the fact that many of you here, myself included, are in fact victims of unfair and unjust circumstances or actions that you had no control over. I pray you will always find this to be a safe space for the messiest parts of your story.

What I am saying to you today is not that those things did not happen to you, or that you are not allowed to call them by name. Rather, what I’m saying today is we will not live in the places of our abuse any longer. We will no longer give oppressors power over us by living under the identity of “victim.” No, no, instead we will live in our true identities as victors, for we are children of the Most High God, and victory is our inheritance.

It is no secret that we live in a world where sin, evil, and pain are abundant. As such, we are bound to experience the consequences of this fallen world, whether by our own doing, or the doing of others. We are not victims of our own sin in any circumstance, we’re simply responsible for it. But thanks be to God that we are offered the gift of repentance and forgiveness by the blood of Jesus. We can, however, be the victims of someone else’s sin, evil, and pain.

And that’s where we pick up today.

I know that might seem counter intuitive given the title of this journal, but stay with and I promise we’ll get there.

I, like you, have found myself to be the victim of someone else’s sin and pain. I have felt the unjustness of it. I have grieved over the pain I did not inflict upon myself, but still felt. I have sat under the heavy yoke of someone else’s burdens thrust upon me.

And in total truth, I have also lived years of my life identifying by that pain. Still carried by the abundant grace and love of God, but not actually living in the fullness of it. In short, in His grace God was offering me complete rescue from the sea of despair I was sinking in, and I traded it for a flotation device.

Imagine you are lost at sea, and at long last offered rescue. The Coast Guard is hovering above you, hand stretched out, ladder falling from the sky to your helicopter of safety, and instead you say “no thanks, I’ll stay here. Just throw me a life jacket.” You’re not drowning anymore, but you’re not free either.

I think that’s where we often find ourselves. Certainly, that’s where I have found myself many times over.

One of the foundational verses for Grace in the Moment is 2 Corinthians 12:9, here I have included through verse 10, “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

This verse is not only foundational for this ministry, but for my life as well.

When I was in 8th grade my friend and teammate was tragically killed by her father, the morning after her death I opened my phone to a text with this very verse. I’ll never forget it. In that moment of impossible grief something shifted for me. How was any 13 year old girl supposed to know how to grieve the loss of her friend, killed by her own father? How was anyone to walk forward through a pain like that? Despite the best efforts of our teachers, school faculty, and coaches, no one had any earthly answers for us, because how could you? Who could know what to tell an entire grade of students how to navigate such a senseless and evil tragedy? I found my answer in this verse. His grace. And so with childlike faith I leaned into the grace of God the best I knew how to. It became my strength, and the only thing that carried me through.

Here I was not a casualty of despair, here I was held by the grace of God, because it was the only thing I knew in that moment to be true. I held onto the promises of God like my life depended on it, because it did.

I wish I could say I then went on to navigate all tragedies and circumstances in my life this way. That I never labeled myself as the nature of my circumstances, or what I was a victim to, rather His grace alone, and what the blood of Jesus bought for me. That, however, would be an utter lie. Not because I wanted to be labeled a victim, or the painful outcome of circumstances I found myself in, because truly, I didn’t. But because I truly believe that is one of the plainest plans of the enemy.

I believe that the enemy, Satan, wants nothing more than to see us stuck in our pain and despair, and so he will fight with every measly ounce of power he has to see his dream become a reality.

What’s interesting is that sometimes I think pain feels more appealing to us than freedom. The promise of freedom seems like something too good to be true, and if it is in fact that, too good to be true indeed, it is a recipe for complete heartbreak. And who needs more heartbreak when you are already writhing in pain? So we choose what we have found to be the “safety” of our pain.

But our pain is no safer a place for us to live than shark infested waters, and a life jacket will not save us here, only total rescue.

Thanks be to God that this is where God, in His infinite mercy, compassion, and strength, meets us, if only we will invite Him in.

Because He is merciful and His Word is that powerful, God will still give us a life preserver when He longs to give us total rescue. And that will bide our time, we will stay afloat. This can look like knowing God has purpose to the pain you’re experiencing, and perhaps looking to His Word for inspiration and hope- where you will in fact draw strength, because His Word is powerful and will not return void- but ultimately sitting more in the pain than standing in faith, labeling ourselves by our pain, rather than the freedom found in Christ.

God He longs for more for us.

He longs that we might know total freedom.

Galatians 5:1 in The Message translation says this, “Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.”

This verse is referring to not allowing ourselves to be enslaved again to the sin Jesus set us free from, but I believe the message also applies to the freedom Jesus has offered us from the pain of our circumstances, and the things we have fallen victim to.

Jesus’ death on the cross, and resurrection bought us a freedom that transcends death, sin, and every ounce of pain this world can hold. Now this does not mean we will not still experience death, because our earthly bodies will all one day pass away (2 Corinthians 5:1-2), we all have and will sin (Romans 3:23), and pain is something we all have and will experience (Romans 8:18), but it does mean that this is not where we live as children of God. We live in a place of freedom.

Colossians 3:1-2 in The Message translation puts it like this, “So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides.

Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ - that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.”

Our power comes from when we pursue the things over which Christ presides. When we look up to our King. When we see things from His perspective.

And here’s where we bring it full circle. It is true that we are all victims to something, and the pain of that can be soul crushing. But, as children of the Most High God, freedom waits for you in the very place of your pain.

Now let me pause quickly before we go on any further, I am in no way telling you to shove down the very real emotions of the pain you have known. That is not ever healthy. Jesus himself felt great emotion, and wept (John 11:35, Luke 22:44). Feel the full breath of your emotions, mourn, grieve, cry, scream, feel it all. But do not make that place your home. Do not make the pain your name.

And while we might be victims to very real and awful circumstances or actions, that is not our identity as children of God.

We are not victims here.

We are free. Overcomers. Not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and are saved.

Isaiah 62:4 says this to the people of Israel, but it is true for you and I all the same, “No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah (my delight is in her), and your land Beulah (married); for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be married.”

We are the delight of the Lord, the Bride of Christ, co-heirs with Christ. That is who we are, not victims.

I wonder how different our lives might look like if that was the identity we lived in, rather than that of a victim? How much more joy might we experience if we lived in this truth daily? How much more effective for the Kingdom of Heaven could we be if we chose to believe we were in fact all God says we are, and not the lies the enemy tells us. My guess would be very.

So that is my challenge to you and to me today, and all the days moving forward. If we’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ let’s act like it. Let’s pursue the things over which Christ presides. Let’s take Him at His word, and believe we are in fact all that He says we are. That He gives us our identity, not the enemy. That His Word is good, and His promises are true. And that by the blood of Jesus we are not victims anymore, but instead, have been made new.

When we live in the fullness of the freedom God is offering us, and under the identities of children of God, and all that He says we are, that’s when we will find our total rescue from the sea of our pain.

Not that the waters of that sea will automatically dry up, and the pain will go away, but that our God will give us a way through that sea. Psalm 77:19 puts it this way, “Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen.”

Perhaps it is in His rescue of us from these seas of pain we find ourselves in that we find who we really are in Him. Perhaps it is here that we learn best we are not victims here.

Peace to you, friend.