Piloting Faith: The opposite of a victim is...

A Word for the Day...

I met a woman on the plane yesterday who told me her life story. I listened intently as she shared story after story of heartbreak and woe. After a while, it began to feel like a bad country music song – she lost her husband, her dog died and the truck broke down. It didn’t take me long to sense that while she had certainly encountered difficult times, she also enjoyed identifying with the pain those times created. She was playing the role of victim.

Most of us do at points in our lives, so I say that with compassion. We have all known hard times. We have all felt as if life was “out to get us” and nothing we could do would make things better. Some of us get stuck in that narrative. Others of us push through and learn something about resilience.

I think the opposite of a Victim is a Creator. A creator is someone who takes the challenges of life and asks, “What can I create from this experience that aligns with the life I want?” A creator focuses on outcomes instead of problems, on what they DO want instead of what they DON’T want.

Try to see your life through the creative lens in the coming days. Let’s see what happens.

- Rev. Cameron Trimble, author of Piloting Church: Helping Your Congregation Take Flight

Blessing for the Week

May the God who dwells beyond us
and the God who dwells among us
and the God who calls us to dwell together
bless you now
and always.

- Jan Richardson, Sacred Journeys: A Woman's Book of Daily Prayer