Victim vs. Survivor

I’ve heard and seen a lot about how one can let his or her chronic illness turn them into either a victim or a survivor. The mindset is that either you can let your illness keep you from living life, or you can push through and live a full life in spite of your illness. I’ve been trying to find the spiritual balance between these. I cannot be a survivor on my own. But, as a Christian, how should I face living my life with this chronic illness?

First, I can’t live with a victim mindset. A victim or martyr or whatever you want to call it is focused on himself. It’s the attitude of, “Woe is me! I have this horrible illness, and no one can understand what I am going through.” When I think of people like this, I picture someone who’s a lot like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. A victim always looks at the bad. As a Christian, I have been called to focus on God and others (Matthew 22:37-40). As a growing Christian, I should also be growing in joy, one of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). Therefore, it is un-Christian-like to have a victim mentality.

That leaves us with the other end of the spectrum, the survivor. This end is also tricky because it can also be self-focused. There can be a temptation to have the attitude of, “I am strong, therefore I can get myself through this by myself, and I will get myself through this.” Self-reliance does not trust God. When things get extra-hard, this mentality can also fall apart. When God brings me to the point where I start to break, if I am relying on my own strength—however great it may be—I will shatter. My strength is not enough.

The attitude that a Christian should have is summed up in the verses “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13) and “We are more than conquerors through him [Christ] that loved us” (Romans 8:37). I can get through these hard times with the strength that comes from having confidence in who my God is. That is what trust is: Believing that God is who He says He is and will do what He has promised to do.

This is the mindset that I choose to have. I believe that what God says about Himself is true, and He will bring me through this and use this because of that. The result is a peace and strength that the world does not and cannot understand. So, I choose to be neither a victim nor a survivor. I am a conqueror.

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