From Victim to Victor: Crafting Your Life's Story
Biblical Insights on Narrative Control and Personal Growth
When we tell stories, they often get more time than they actually took. We may give them more importance than other people who were there. Consider how many sermons have focused on David killing Goliath. Preachers discuss motivations, methods, leadership, courage, standing for one's faith, and many other subjects. That story has become the source of legends.
Consider today how we tell a story and how we may even tell it differently than someone else who was there. David kills Goliath.
How do his brothers tell that story as they think of his pride, coming to the camp, and acting important? Do they dismiss the God factor in David's life? Do they see luck playing a part or just arrogant pride? We don't know because we can only imagine. God didn't tell us that story.
David had choices in how to tell his story. Was he a mighty hero and a great warrior, or did God work miracles for His glory? David chose to magnify the God of heaven with his story.
How about Joseph being betrayed by his brothers and being sold into slavery? The brothers tell their dad a wild animal has killed and eaten their Joseph. The dad lives in misery, reliving and reliving the death and loss of his son.
Maybe Ruben tells the story of how he was the only one with compassion, hoping to save his brother's life. How many stories come out of that one event? How different are the stories, each told by a different person from a different point of view?
Joseph will change the story's perspective. He knows they meant it for evil, to kill him and get rid of him, but he chooses to focus on how God used what they meant for evil while God meant it for good.
Your heart, lens, perspective, or point of view decide precisely how the story will go. Will you depict yourself as a victim of others' abuse, or will you tell the story of your hero, God, who rescued and transformed you?
The story you decide to tell will ring in your heart all your life, or at least for a long time. It will also have a ripple effect on your family and friends.
David could tell the story of his brothers, fellow citizens, and the king mocking him or his military might, or he could, as he did, give all the glory to God.
Joseph could cry and whine and lay in a corner, beaten and defeated, or he could tell himself the story of God having a plan for his life. What kept Joseph alive in all the 13 years of slavery, struggle, and abuse? His self-told story, I believe, sustained him throughout his years of enslavement, the journey to Egypt, his sale, forced labor, false accusation, neglect, and solitude.
Joseph's story, as he sees it, is that God had big plans for him. What happened to him didn't matter; it was part of the journey to all God had promised. No matter where he went, he kept the right attitude and spirit.
How are you doing with your story?
What stories are you telling yourself?
Do you recount the abuse, the suffering, the poverty, the loss, or do you see how God worked through it all
Do you see others mocking you, or do you look for your purpose?
Your attitude in the story determines much of your attitude in life. What you tell yourself and what you look for will make or break you.
Will you be the helpless victim or the mighty God-filled servant who fully expects God to take the worst thrown at you and turn it for His glory? You decide.