Morning Meditation: Dismantling Tyrannical Leadership

Lord, You who toppled Pharaoh's empire not with armies but with midwives — Shiphrah and Puah, two women brave enough to say "no" when a tyrant demanded death — teach me their holy defiance this morning.

Hebrews 13:2 tells us not to neglect hospitality to strangers, because some have entertained angels unaware. That verse sits in a world where Caesar decided who belonged and who didn't, where Rome's borders determined whose life had value. And into that empire, the early church flung open its doors to everyone — the refugee, the widow, the foreign merchant with dust on his sandals and nowhere to sleep. Every meal shared at a Christian table was a quiet revolution against the powers that said, "These people don't matter."

Tyranny doesn't always wear a crown. Sometimes it wears a supervisor's badge and silence where advocacy should be. Sometimes it sits in a church board meeting and disguises control as "vision." But the gospel has always dismantled oppression the same way — not from the top down, but from the table outward. One act of radical welcome at a time.

Father, give me the courage of those Hebrew midwives, the hospitality of the early church, and the eyes to recognize the stranger at my door as Your messenger in disguise. Make my kitchen table, my workplace, my everyday conversations into outposts of Your Kingdom — places where dignity is the only policy and love is the operating authority.

Today, look for the person in your world who has been silenced by someone else's power. Set a place for them. That single act of welcome may be the first crack in a wall that was never meant to stand.