John 10:17–18
"For this reason [God] loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord."
Reflection by Anthony B. Robinson
Sometimes we feel like a victim. Sometimes we really are victims. Victims of crime. Victims of prejudice. Victims of foolishness. At the mercy of some exasperating bureacrat who won't budge. Nibbled, as if by ducks, to death. Cut off in traffic, cut off in life.
Yes, we may sometimes be victims. But there's another step we might want to avoid. Adopting a victim mentality. What's that sound like? "There's nothing I can do." "He made me do it." "I have no choice." "Change is impossible." "I'm powerless." "I guess there's nothing we can do." Those are the sounds of a victim mentality.
Note what Jesus says here about the hard path before him. No one made him do it. No one "took" his life from him. He gave it. He "laid it down."
There's a lot of power in those words. "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." This king rules not by taking but by giving.
We may not, certainly do not, have complete freedom or control over what this day will bring us. But we do have some considerable power over how we frame it and how we live it. Instead of thinking of our day and our lives as being "taken from us," and slipping into a victim mentality, can we fall in behind Jesus, claiming our own lives and giving them, giving them powerfully?
Prayer
When I wander into the pathetic and self-pitying, deliver me, Lord, into powerful living; giving myself to you and to your way in the world. Amen.
The Book of Exodus: A God is still speaking Bible Study, by Anthony Robinson, is now available.
