Day 206 - Liberty

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I was having dinner with a friend recently. He was telling me about this big business deal he had made happen for his company. Through his efforts, a significant sale was made that brought great accolade to all involved. I asked my friend how much the contract he sold was for and believe me it was a significant accomplishment this friend made happen. Here's where the story got really interesting for me that evening.

I asked my friend how the company he worked for reacted to this sale. He said that there was a flurry of emails going around congratulating his boss, and his boss's boss coming form the highest echelons of the company. As my friend saw so many people getting pats on the back for all the hard work my friend had done, something started to arise in my friend's thinking.

You see, at that moment, my friend started to let victim thinking creep into his life through feelings of jealousy. He began looking at all the congratulations that others were getting as a slight against him and all the hard work he had to do to make this sale possible. Though he was getting pats on the back as well, the fact that others, thousands of miles away, were getting credit didn't sit right with him at all.

He told me he was getting ready to sit down and craft a carefully worded email to help all the powers to be know of their mistake in spreading the good tidings of this sale so widely in the company. My friend is really skilled at making a point, even a difficult point. Maybe that is why he is such a good salesman. It sure is a skill that helped him land such a lucrative deal for his company.

My friend said that as he contemplated sending out an email to set everyone straight, something just didn't feel right. He was torn about what to do. He still felt slighted at how upper management was handling the good news of this sale but he just couldn't pull the trigger on writing a response to all involved. My friend stopped in the middle his confusion and asked God to intervene.

It wasn't long after that moment of prayer that something hit my friend like a ton of bricks. He realized that God loved him just as much whether he got all the credit he wanted for making that sale or not. You see, my friend realized that credit wasn't the issue, identity was. This friend was about to step into the dangerous zone of making identity about something others see as a result of what he did. But, like the victor I know this friend to be, he didn't.

My friend said that when he realized the fact that God's love was for him whether he was viewed as a success by others or not, a peace came over him that was literally inexplicable. It just didn't matter whether he got ALL the attention his fragile soul wanted or not. God saw him as the fullness of the victor He calls my friend to be and at that moment that was enough for him.

He told me that he was so glad he didn't waste the time writing an email to correct all those he felt slighted by. He said that he would have spent hours agonizing over every word of this email to make sure it was the right combination of information combined with the respect needed to make sure he didn't lose his job. He also realized that, if he would have sent that email, many many hours would have been required to deal with the fallout of sending such an email around to upper management. Misunderstandings would have resulted and so much precious time would have had to be invested to clean up the mess identity issues could have caused that day in my friend's life.

This victor told me that evening that he felt liberated by his decision. He knew what a good job he had done. Others in the company knew it as well. It was when this friend recognized victim thinking lurking at the door that he was able to shut that door in ways that brought a power to his life that just can't be matched by any pat on the back from man in this world.

Liberated is a great word for us to think about when it comes to victor living. To be liberated means that we are set free from bondage. My friend's feeling of liberation was exactly what happened. He was set free from the bondage victim thinking promises when we let this be the lens from which we view life. Liberation comes as we live in the status of victor living.

Check out what the Bible says on the subject.

Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
    I will protect him, because he knows my name.
When he calls to me, I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble;
    I will rescue him and honor him. Psalm 91:14-15 (ESV)

My friend was protected from the effects of victim thinking because he held fast to God's love for his life. He rejected man's attention for the love God has proven to my friend time and time again. This is what brought the feeling of liberation at being able to just let God be God in the aftermath of this amazing accomplishment my friend made happen.

That's what God wants for us all. Freedom is His goal for each and everyone of us. That freedom will be complete when we pass from this life into the next one. But we can experience the fullness of that freedom here as we turn to God when victim thinking threatens to take hold in our lives.

God hates His children to be in bondage. He can't stand when we turn to this world to get what He so freely gives. It is when we let the victor status He placed in each of us come alive, that freedom can be seen and lived out in the lives of us all.

I hope you and I will do what my friend did that day when this world threatened to take him back into bondage. I hope we will turn to God and let His love be all we need for fulfillment in this world. It is only in that way can we too find that place of liberation that my friend found as he faced his battles in this world.

What are you about to do today that is being spurred on by victim thinking? I hope you are more interested in freedom than in being right when it comes to your identity. Take a lesson from my friend and let freedom be what makes your identity be all it can be as you live out your victor status today.