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       It seems in today’s world, everyone not only desires to be a victim but works hard at being one.

Let’s talk about victims. A victim, as the dictionary would define, is a person harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a crime, accident, or other event or action. A victim is also a person who is tricked, duped, and/or a living creature killed as a religious sacrifice.

Those three definitions cover a lot of territory. A person harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a crime, accident or other events pretty much includes us all.  We may not have been killed as a result of a crime or accident, but in the end, we will all be killed by something called life.  We were all born to die.  Shake it off and get real.  No one is getting out of this life alive.  (Well, almost no one.)  Therefore, the vast majority of us are victims of life. 

Don’t think so?  Just look at the definition—a person who is tricked or duped.  You don’t think you’ve been duped by life?  Think again!

 Henry David Thoreau nailed it in WALDEN when he said:“The mass of men leads lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats,” Thoreau said. “A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.” 

Look at the people around you.  To a man or woman, they are all leading shallow, inauthentic lives dominated by competition for wealth, success, or the struggle of survival.  They live their lives to be seen of others, to be judged by which car they drive or where they live or which school they attended.  Their success or failure is not based on anything they have done, but on how others have perceived what they have done. 

Dr. E.C. Fulcher Jr. has a marvelous teaching on just this point.  It’s called “IS THAT ALL THERE IS?” 

To paraphrase what Fulcher mentioned:  It’s Monday, 5AM.  You get up, get dressed and go to work.  You do your job; you handle the problems that come up; and some you delay for a future time.  Then, quitting time comes around.  With a sigh of relief, you punch out (or whatever you do) and drive home.  At home, you make dinner, settle back to relax and watch 911 and 911-Lone Star. Then, you go to bed because on Tuesday, the alarm rings at 5AM and you get up to go work. 

At work, the problems that you didn’t take care of on Monday, quickly rear their heads and you must handle them before you can get to Tuesday’s problems.  But you hunker down and continue with your work.  The boss calls you in and hands you a special task.  Now, you have even more to do than you normally would, but you don’t complain to him. (You might complain to some of your fellow workers, but you remember that in your last job, anything you say can make it back to your boss and cause you no end of troubles.)  So, you hunker down and try to get everything done, only you can’t in the time allowed; so, you put in a little overtime. Finally, you get to go home.  It’s late, so you pick up something from a fast-food place and make it back just in time to catch Superman and Loison the TV.  After the show, you clean up a little around the apartment or house, and eventually go to bed because now, it’s Wednesday.

The alarm rings a 5AM.  You get up, have breakfast and go to work.  You are feeling a little better because it’s Wednesday, hump day—only two more working days until the weekend.  So, you go through the motions and get your work done.  You handle the problems and listen to your other co-workers’ complaints around the water cooler or in the break room.  Finally, quitting time comes around and you go home.  You cook dinner, clean up and sit down to watch Riverdale and Nancy Drew.  Then, you go to bed because on Thursday, the clock rings you awake at 5AM for you to get up and go to work. 

You do your job, you take your breaks, and you start making plans in the back of your mind for the weekend.  Quitting time rolls around and you head home to dinner and the new Walker and Legaciesbefore going to bed.  Your head hits the pillow and before you know it, the alarm rings and it’s 5AM and time to go to work.  Only it’s Friday, the last day of the week, just 8-hours away from a couple of days of freedom.  You do your job, and the day drags with anticipation. Quitting time does not get there fast enough and when it does, you rush out to the parking lot and drive home because now, you have a choice. The first real choice of the week:  you can either go home and watch the new Hawaii Five-0or you can head out to the Tavern, shoot a couple of game of pool and drown your frustrations from the week in a couple or three Pabst Blue Ribbons. 

So, you head out to the bar and too many Pabst Blue Ribbons later, you have missed Hawaii Five-0, lost a couple of dollars playing Eight-Ball but you head home feeling somehow relieved.  Saturday morning, you wake up with a slight hang over and start your weekend tasks: clean the home or mow the lawn or fix the thing-a-ma-jig that broke on Tuesday that you didn’t have time to get to because of your work. 

Then comes Saturday night and you have another choice: you can either go out or maybe catch a baseball/basketball/hockey game on the T.V.  You decide to stay in and watch a Cubs Game off the Super Station.  After the game, you go to bed and wake up on Sunday to putz around the house/apartment and watch T.V because you know that tomorrow is Monday and at 5AM the alarm will ring. Is this all there is? 

Unless you possess wisdom, as Thoreau called it, yes, that is all there is.  You are a victim of life. A life, that we’re supposed to be passing through to ultimately get into the realm of eternal life to be in the presence of the ultimate victim, who transcended into a survivor: Jesus Christ.

Now, let’s talk about survivors. A survivor is a person who survives, especially a person remaining alive after an event in which others have died. It also means, the remainder of a group of people or things, a person who copes well with difficulties in their life—joint tenant who has the right to the whole estate on the other’s death.

Jesus Christ was the ultimate sacrifice, a victim, remember—a victim, as the dictionary would define, is a person harmed, injured, or killed because of a crime, accident, or other event or action; as well as a person who is tricked, duped, and/or a living creature killed as a religious sacrifice—and has become the first fruits of all survivors with His resurrection.  Jesus was both a victim and a survivor, which means that we can also be if He is in us.  We are not just joint tenants but we are also joint heirs to the kingdom. Romans 8:17 says, “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” Remember, a survivor means joint tenant who has the right to the whole estate on the other’s death; as well as a person who survives, especially a person remaining alive after an event in which others have died. It also means, the remainder of a group of people or things, a person who copes well with difficulties in their life.

Job 28:28 says, “And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.”

Life imbues you with a negative mentality, so much so, that people have made millions writing books on how to have a positive attitude.  If the positive attitude were the norm, no one would be writing about it.  Most people do things, say things to incur the empathy of others.  You know the old saying: “Misery loves company.”  That is so true.  There is the need to perceive the harm as undeserved, unjust and immoral, an act that could not be prevented by the victim. 

There is the great scene in the movie UNFORGIVEN when Eastwood’s character had brought Hackman’s character down and Hackman calls out, “I don’t deserve this.  I’m building a house.”  It’s a classic victim response to a perceived undeserved and unjust act.  How many people out there do you know who think that their lives are beyond their control?  Or that they deserve sympathy because of all the crap that rains down on them?  Or go out of their way to have their “victimhood” recognized and affirmed by others?

But how many of us deserve the unjust life described by Dr. Fulcher in his: “IS THIS ALL THERE IS?”sermon or by Thoreau in WALDEN.  The answer is in the Bible:  We have all fallen short: Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”and Romans 3:10 says “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:”With the fall of Adam, we all passed into the realm of the underserving. Which brings me to an interesting observation.

Did you know that the word “victim” and all its variations does not appear even once in the Bible?

Neither does the word “survivor”.

Which got me to thinking: what’s the difference between a victim and a survivor?  Nothing.  You can’t be a survivor without first being a victim.  There are two sides of the same coin.  First, you are the victim.  Then you learn to accept it and grow past it.  You use it as a learning experience. You don’t wallow in it. 

Mostly everyone wallows in life.  They accept their “victimhood” and keep repeating the same thing day after day, almost without realizing it.  After all, it is life, is it not?  It’s what you are supposed to do.  They have the “life owes me” attitude and they keep waiting to get paid back.  Really? Like 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

Truth seeker, Seretta Williamson has also been tricked by life—a victim, who blossomed into a God-loving survivor.

Starting from childhood, Williamson had to deal with bullies and family members physically violating her. Not letting that consume her, she fought for herself and learned to accept things that could not be changed. Despite learning early to be a survivor, it still didn’t holt her from falling into life’s obstacles.

Drugs, prostitution, stripping, and violence resulting in a bullet to the jaw are all included in the obstacles mentioned above.

However, Williamson survived it and “just keeps living.”

“I’ve learned from my chapters, and I’ve accepted it. I don’t keep re-reading my chapters over and over. I refuse to be stuck in pain. I’m stronger than that,” she continued. “I keep growing! I’m a strong tree that keeps growing! Nothing stops me. From bullying to bullets, nothing, period.”

Job, who revered God, was extremely tortured by satan, with God’s permission. Job lost everything, after having it all. And yet, he never wallowed in that negative place and served God more than before. As Job 1:22 says “In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.”

Life doesn’t owe you squat.  Life is what you make it, not what it gives you.  But to make it something, you have to have wisdom.  You must have the wisdom to know what life really is.  Look at that great Psalm 23:4, which says “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”  Our lives end with death. 

Therefore, life is nothing more than that valley between birth and death that we have to walk through.  There are numerous promises that this valley will be turned in to a garden, as long as we have God before us. Therein lies the key to both being a survivor and having wisdom.  You need God before you. 

Isaiah 45:22 says, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”

No longer victims, but survivors by the grace of God!

Written and edited by Charlene Mayo and Tanya Tillman

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