From Survivor To Overcomer
When we mention “survivors”, we might think of the popular reality television series that is now in its 47th season. Along the same lines as the tv series, we often think of “survivors” as those who have faced challenges and left them behind to emerge triumphantly with a prize, a fortune, or a new-found life of success. I guess that could be true, maybe on reality tv. But in the real reality that most people face every day, being a survivor implies overcoming a hardship only to find more challenges that must be faced in life due to that hardship that was supposedly overcome.
When I think of survivors, I think of people in our small community. I think of the ones who survived a hardship but have more struggles to face because of it. I think of a child who survived a kidnapping experience and grew up for decades away from family. I think of parents who survived a tragic gun death but lost their precious child. I think of a motorcyclist who survived a wreck but lost more than her companion, she lost her twin sister. I think of a family that will survive the hospital experience, but do not know to what extent life will be changed when and if their loved one comes home. I think of little children who have been neglected, abused, and abandoned. These are some of the survivors that I have encountered just in the past month in our little town.
These survivors are anything but invincible. They are normal people like the people that you will run into on the streets of your hometown. They talk like us. They look like us. They hurt like us. In fact, they might hurt more than us simply because they are survivors. These survivors are not ones who have passed through troublous times to take their place on an elevated pedestal but rather ones who have passed through troublous times and now need the grace beyond measure that only Christ can offer. And with this grace comes the good news. With Jesus’ grace, they will go from being mere survivors, burdened with pain and hardships too hard to handle, to become overcomers with a place by Jesus, on His throne forever.
These survivors are people all around us and it is scary to think about what they have survived. But they have to live that scariness, every day. Will you reach out and share the grace of Christ with them in their time of need? Will you help our beloved survivors become overcomers?
“To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” Revelation 3:21 (cf. Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12)