“You decide if you’re oppressed. You deci-I know I’m going to get in trouble for saying this. I DON’T CARE. Like, you can decide to get better. You can decide to leave an abusive relationship. You can decide to work. You can decide to get up. You can decide that you’re not oppressed.”
-Nicole Arbour-
Hegemonic structures that are broken aside, injustice in broken systems; broken laws; broken institutions; and broken people aside, we have a series of wars against the Victim Spirit that we must win if we are to step into the fullness of what Jesus Christ has for us.
If you are a broken person, you have a choice to move into or toward a place of wholeness.
No options beyond this.
You might be called to see a structure torn down that is unjust, but you cannot tear it down only to replace it with a structure that favors this group at the expense of another group.
Gang, and specifically Servants, your design is critical, no matter who criticizes you.
I was watching a couple of clips from Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, and while I do not generally care for the Wingnut editing of Tolkien’s masterpieces, I am compelled to share when I think Jackson hits the right notes.
Saruman made a comment in An Unexpected Journey, which is easily covered over and possibly missed in Galadriel speaking to Mithrandir’s mind, in spitting on Radagast’s design. And Radagast is the archtypical Servant.
The comment is:
“It’s not that. It’s his excessive consumption of mushrooms. They’ve addled his brain and yellowed his teeth. I warned him, it is unbefitting one of the Istari to wander in the woods…”
Here is the relevant discussion:
Saruman, on the one hand, had an idea of what is befitting an Istari (Tolkien’s term for the Wizards), and comported himself in such a fashion.
Radagast, on the other hand, was given and drawn to serving nature and the animals, and that was his design, and it actually served the White Council well.
Sometimes we need that buddy who loves mushrooms and has “yellow teeth” and “addled brain” from the POV of some who simply do not get the Servant value.
Often times, gang, when the L-rd is speaking to us, he is going to use creation (Psalm 19, Isaiah 24) to communicate the reality to us. The spiritual will be reflected in creation and nature. And Servants are often going to be among those who clue in to the germane markers first.
If you denigrate and discount those who work with nature, and tell your tribesmates who is proper and improper for them, then the chances are really high you will cut off a valuable, though weird to some, barometer to the kingdom that would alert you clearly to one of the enemy’s stratagems, especially given the primary set of markers for Leviathan is the set of markers found in nature and creation.
Gang, I encourage you, those of you who have a friend in nature, to allow them and encourage them to connect deeply with nature.
And those of us who were in organizations like Boy Scouts, likely were so hardwired because we love nature and things like conservation.
