How can lifelong or generations of oppression break or crush people’s spirits?
The Israelites would have rather gone back to live under the Egyptians’ enslavement. That shows the damage of people, and that is the misery of our people. They come to love their oppressor—in a sense—more than they love themselves. And that works itself out in our society, in terms of what we call self-hatred. It worked itself out in black men in terms of self-hatred, of killing ourselves, of destroying ourselves. That’s the ultimate oppression—killing. The solution is to come alongside someone and nurture that person in love. That’s the key, but it’s still hard. When we say that we are talking about a social good, a redemptive good, it is counter to what our culture says. We are supposed to be self-focused. Jesus set a new model of being “other-focused.” We see this in the sacrifice of Jesus, His love for us, and the extremity of His love for us by His death on the cross. That’s a miracle story, and it’s that miracle power within that story that transformed my life. We have to show p
