Being a victim
Day by day the list of people identified as victims seems to grow. The latest one is reported in a recent news article: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-19/who-finds-billions-suffer-from-ageism/100016688. So that’s victims based on race, gender, sexual orientation (dis)ability, cultural and religious background, injustice, violence and now age. Doubtless the list could be added to and will be added to.
Is any of us not a victim? Even for a white-skinned, educated male like me who grew up in a stable family and who has suffered little during a largely untroubled life, I’m sure there’s an area of victimisation somewhere – even if it’s only the oncoming process of ageing or the general condition of being a fallen person in a fallen world.
To say this is not to belittle suffering or the harsh realities of those who, amidst the general fallen condition of humanity, have particular suffering, prejudice and discrimination because of who they are. These are real realities. They hurt. They matter. As we are each able, we should join the struggle to minimise such particular suffering and help care for those who are its victims. And we should examine ourselves and take responsibility for any ways in which we make others victim.
Instances abound of people who refuse to be defined by their victim-hood. I think of two friends with profound but different physical disabilities which have a range of other limiting effects. Both have striven to do work-around for the disability and lead flourishing lives. One even expresses thankfulness for his disability, saying that it has opened realities for him that otherwise he would have missed. I think of another with a perplexing mental illness but who could see how it opened marvellous creative capacities in her life.
The apostle Paul had reasons to claim status as a victim. Because he changed religion, he became an outsider to his cultural community and attracted unwanted attention from law-enforcement agencies. He lists and ‘boasts’ of all this in 2 Cor. 11:23-28. Yet more was to be added to this list before he died for his religious beliefs.
Yet Paul refuses to be defined as a victim. And so, he writes:
11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Phil 4:11-13.
For Paul, it’s a choice to be contented, whatever the circumstances. Even from a prison cell imposed by an unjust process, he looks to flourish (Phil 1:12-18. See also Acts 16:19-25). Behind that, lies his confidence that whatever nasty things life throws at us, God is always working for the good of his people and nothing can separate them form God’s love (Rom 8:28-30).
So, there’s the choice. We can rail against the unfairness of our victimhood and be defined by it in limiting and possibly harmful ways, or we can accept our circumstances, choose contentment and flourish as we can and where we are.
Victimhood or victoriousness?
