Christian Devotional: "I Am Not What Happened To Me"

An inspiring story from the Congo, Africa, demonstrates how trauma and oppression do not have to be defining a person's or community's values, being or behavior. We sometimes cannot control what happens to us, but we ARE not what happened to us, we can choose how we respond to what happens to us.

Transcript

I am not what happened to me.

Quote by Carl Jung I'm not what happened to me.

I am what I choose to become.

Meditation.

A few days ago,

I watched an episode of Parts Unknown with Anthony Bourdain,

Who traveled through the Congo.

Not long ago,

A U.

S.

President made disparaging and racist remarks about Africans and Haitians.

CNN aired footage of different African countries as a response to educate U.

S.

Citizens.

The Congo's leadership arose in the 1960s and was endorsed by the West.

But that turned out to be deeply exploitive of its people.

The country's railroad system has been left to decay for many decades.

I was struck by a group of about 30 people who are not paid by the government,

But who show up to work every day to fight the complete decay of the railroad system.

They do,

Even when their only resources are their physical strength and their shared mission as a community.

How can this group of men,

After more than 50 years,

Come back to work every day without getting paid?

How can they have not given up?

They assert that they want to be ready in case there is a change.

A change of leadership,

A change in resources,

A change of politics.

They will not be determined by what has happened to them,

But by how they choose to behave and by the vision they have about their future.

What a faith!

What a testimony!

And the Bible verse comes from Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 19.

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death,

The blessing and the curse.

So choose life in order that you may live,

You and your descendants.

I'm saying a prayer.

God of hope,

I'm inspired by our African brothers and sisters.

Their hope,

Endurance,

Discipline and communal resistance to oppression is deeply touching.

Help us all see that we are not what happens to us,

But are who we choose to become.

I pray for freedom in the Congo and in all other countries that experience oppressive regimes.

Amen.