Victim

"I was sexually abused when I was 3 and raped when I was 5. How can I be responsible for my life. Those bastards made me this way. They damaged me."

"You are not responsible for your injury. You are not responsible for being born blind. You are however responsible for how you use this. You can bludgeon yourself and others to death with it. You can make yourself a special victim category and justify your bad behavior as no doubt those who hurt you justified their behavior. Or you can decide to not return wrong for wrong. You can let the past control you or you can start the day fresh. That's your choice. You can be a victim or a survivor today."

"I don't want to be a victim or a survivor. I want those bastards to suffer like I did. I'm not going to let anyone hurt me again. I'm going to get them first. "

"Have you heard the joke, Tribalism, when will it end?

"No, what's that."

Three guys are on the plane. One guy gets up and goes to the back of the plane leaving his shoes. The other two guys pick his shoes up and spit in them when he's away from his seat. When the first guy returns, he turns to the other two guys and says, I'm going back to get a coke. Would you guys like a coke."

They say yes and he returns and sits down. The three guys drink their coke. Just before the plane lands, the first guy turns to the others and says, "Tribalism, when will it end?"

One of the other guys says, "What do you mean by Tribalism.?"

"You known, " says the first guy, "Tribalism: spitting in shoes and pissing in coke."

So you see everyone is a victim of tribalism So the question is how do we survive tribalism.

Sacrifice Or Compromise? Letting go of fear. Learning to love.

Love your enemy is a truly human statement. It's beyond the lizard or the animal. To know that which is human we have to ask what is it that animals and lizards cannot do that we can. Self awareness is just one thing. Knowing God may be another. Living a principled life. Loving your neighbor as yourself. Loving God. Reaching for the Stars. Letting go of being a victim for something far more than pity.

Agape love.