Victims of our Circumstances
I’m a victim of my circumstances. I grew up in a great home with great parents who loved me and loved each other. They gave me all the tools I needed to succeed and I ran with that. I was affirmed, built up, disciplined, taught right and wrong, and shown Jesus. You may wonder how that makes me a victim. Webster defines victim as “one that is acted on and usually adversely affected by a force or agent.” So even in this definition we have the negative meaning by being “adversely affected.”
But what sticks out to me is that we are all acted on by outside forces that are mostly out of our control. None of us choose who our parents are, what family we grew up in, what country we are born in, what race, culture, gender or society we were raised in, all of which shape us. I didn’t choose my home or life but I am grateful for it. We are all victims in a way of our circumstances.
Now this isn’t to say that people have no choices in who they become. I’m also not saying that good people are raised in good homes and bad people are raised in bad home. That simply isn’t true. Kids rebel in good situations and people triumph out of bad circumstances. But what I am saying is that we all have a story, and it is so easy to stereotype and judge others when you don’t take the time to know their story. This is why sharing our stories is so important. It helps us see people not as categories but as people. And when we begin to see people as people then we can begin to love.