I Quit Playing Victim! I Will Go Where I Was Sent! I Am A Survivor! Series

When I look at my life, there seems to be two components that stand out:

What people see from me and what people perceive of me.

Let me repeat that: What people see from me and what people perceive of me.

The unfortunate thing is the “what people see from me” and the “what people perceive of me” is only part of the story. “What people see from me” is only what I show, and “what people perceive of me” can be skewed based on their agenda.

The “what people see from me” can only be something they see from the way I behave, the things I tell, and the additional things I do. The “what people perceive of me” is solely their perception of what they see from me. Because they don’t know the whole story, they often get the message of who I am, wrong. Because they don’t know the whole story, the “who God called me to be” is often displaced. Because they don’t know the whole story, the battles I face are battles that are rooted in facades.

What facades are: they are “an outward appearance that is maintained to conceal a less pleasant or creditable reality.” What I am saying today is that many of the battles we face are battles based on the fake presentation we put up to hide what’s really in side.

But that doesn’t always have to be the case. When we make our way to Jesus, we find that the light in us begins to shine brighter. What we find is that with Jesus, we are able display a side of us, which is the true side of us, in a way that no one can dispute. What we find is that, when we allow “the Word to be a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path” (Psalms 119:105), this light not only lights our path, it does something within us, and this something within us is a transformation that we weren’t necessarily expecting.

As I look back on my life, I realize that God took me from birth to death to life and, now, to transformation. What I realize is that through my life there were transformations that occurred that brought me to where I am today. There were things that occurred, that had they not occurred, I wouldn’t have been the person I am today.

On January 18, 1982, I was born in Detroit, MI. At age 12, I nearly died, and was, ultimately, diagnosed with a mixed-connective tissue disease that caused me to deal with life differently. At age 16, I was truly saved by accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior. At age 26, I was diagnosed with Lupus. At age 36, I am still dealing with the effects of Lupus. The difference now from then is: At age 12, I was a victim of circumstances. At age 13, I was a victim of circumstances. At age 14, I was a victim of circumstances. At age 25, I was a victim of circumstances. At age 29, I was a victim of circumstances. At age 34, I was still a victim of circumstances. But at age 36, I realized that, although I may have been a victim of circumstances at some point in my life, eventually I became a victim of myself. My relishing in my victim status became me victimizing myself. It wasn’t until Jesus walked passed me, and called me back to Him, that I realized that I had transitioned from being a victim to being victimized by me. I moved from being a victim to “playing victim.” What I mean is: There is a time in our life that life isn’t being bad to us. There is a time in our life where we stop being victims and begin “playing the victim.”

And God is calling on us today to: Stop playing victim because you are a survivor!

Today’s message is the concluding message of the “I Quit” series, and it is titled: “I choose to quit playing victim because I am a survivor! I will go where I was sent!”

John 9:1-7 NIV:

1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.