day no. 16,267: tyranny is still tyranny even if it is tiny

Tyranny begins with sin.

We are all born with a miniature dictator on the throne of our heart with a mind set on world conquest. Sin doesn't stay seated there for long before it makes a run out to the tips of every finger, toe and tongue it can find. To be fair, the sins of little kids are sometimes quite funny, but they are no less sinful for being the more entertaining. Sin is strong in the heart of a child to be sure. Every child is a serial killer. They would burn down the entire world for the sake of their delayed satisfaction. The only reason they don't kill everyone and everything is because they lack the resources. But, rest assured, if they had the ability, they would end everything.

Tyranny is not merely defined by overreach. It is overreach, to be sure, but it doesn't merely become tyranny once it reaches over, it only reveals more obviously what it was more subtly before it did. 

"Tyranny is still tyranny even if it's tiny." -- Toby Sumpter

Tyranny is the audacity to claim authority that belongs only to God. It is the tenacity to trample down anything that stands between wish and fulfillment. It is rule without restraint or rule, currently restrained, attempting to remove its restraints. It is not just the end result, but the method of getting there.

It is not the practice per se, but the principle. If a resident of North Dakota gets a request for taxes owed to the State of Kentucky, it doesn't matter how small the bill is. The fact that someone would expect it is tyrannous. Tiny tyrannies do not remain in utero for long. Those suckers grow up, just like all sins do.

James 1:15

Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death.

So what do we do? I can tell you what we don't do: start a revolution. Revolution is just a temper tantrum with a bigger budget. Revolution, in fact, is merely relying on the tyrant within to deliver you from the tyrant without. Revolution is violent impatience and radical insistence upon one's preferred timeline.

Proverbs 16:25

There is a way which seems right to a man,

but its end is the way to death.

Tyranny always ends in death and destruction. It cannot produce liberty. It can free you, perhaps, from the tyranny of another, but it cannot set you free from the dictator within; and it wouldn't want to if it could. Tyranny has no brakes. It has no sense of proportion. It cannot be relied upon to self-govern. It will never restrain itself. It cannot be trusted. It is not to be engaged as a co-belligerent for a common enemy. You are its enemy and it only gains in sway what it helps you overthrow. It happily leads you to start a riot for the sake of securing more territory in your heart. While you're out burning the world down, it's setting up shop and stoking the fireplace in the den of your heart.

So defyrants, big and small, within and without. Submit everything to King Jesus and dethrone ever tinpot tyrant that seeks to secure a safespace for itself to reign.