A few days ago, popular social media creator Keith Lee survived a serious car accident. Shortly after the crash, he posted a video expressing his sincere condolences to the family of the individual who tragically lost their life in the incident. He then went on to thank God for sparing his life and preserving his family.
At no point in his message did he claim to be “God’s favourite.” He never suggested he was more righteous, more favoured, or more deserving of life than the deceased. He simply did what any believer is called to do: he acknowledged God for preserving his breath.
Yet, the comment section exploded with outrage. People accused him of being “insensitive,” arguing that thanking God for his own survival was inherently cruel and insensitive to the grieving family.
Even more alarming was seeing Christians validate this outrage. Certain believers and online leaders chimed in, claiming they “understood” why thanking God in that moment was insensitive because of how it might make the bereaved or God look.
This commentary exposes a dangerous, toxic spiritual trend in the modern Church. When we reach a point where expressing gratitude for God’s mercy is labelled as “insensitive,” we are no longer operating in godly compassion. We are operating in the Orphan Spirit and a Zero-Sum Fallacy that threatens to shipwreck our faith and others.
1. Deliberate Obtuseness & Projected Abandonment
When people react with hostility toward someone else’s testimony, they are rarely responding to the situation at hand. They are being deliberately obtuse.
Their grievance is not that Keith Lee thanked God; their grievance is with a God they believe abandoned them.
Instead of seeing the situation for what it is- a tragedy alongside an act of divine preservation – they insert themselves into the narrative. They look at Keith Lee’s survival through the lens of their own unhealed wounds, unanswered prayers, or past losses, asking: “Why would God save him when He didn’t come through for me?”
They conflate the grief of the bereaved family with their own unresolved bitterness toward Heaven. By projecting their personal sense of abandonment onto a tragedy, they judge God’s character based on their emotional wounds rather than His Word.
2. The Zero-Sum Fallacy of Grace
Underlying this hostility is a spiritual misconception: the Zero-Sum Fallacy.
In economics, a zero-sum game means that one person’s gain is strictly another person’s loss. In this flawed mindset, blessings, protection, and life are finite resources. Believers trapped in this thinking act as if God operates on a zero-sum ledger:
- “If God blessed you, He must have taken that blessing from me.”
- “If God spared Keith Lee, it means He chose to steal life from the other driver.”
This is a complete distortion of the character of God.
God sparing one life does not mean He was cruel to another. Keith Lee was saved because God, in His divine sovereignty and mercy, preserved him. The other individual lost his life due to the tragic, real-world reality of an accident. We cannot explain or reason out the why of this situation neither can we question God- all we can do is bow to His wisdom.
We do not possess the infinite wisdom of God to explain every tragedy or dissect why one person lives and another dies. But as believers, we are called to hold fast to the foundational truth that God is good, just, and wise, even when human existence presents outcomes we cannot fathom.
When we start framing God’s mercy toward one person as an insult to another, we treat the grace of God like a limited commodity.
3. The Orphan Spirit in Action
This refusal to let others testify without inserting our own trauma is the classic signature of an Orphan Spirit.
An Orphan Spirit is a demonic stronghold that causes a person to operate out of a perpetual sense of abandonment, rejection, and scarcity. Because an orphan does not truly know the Father’s love, they view life through the lens of competition and resentment.
Consider how the Orphan Spirit behaves in everyday life:
You can walk up to someone operating under an Orphan Spirit and say, “I had an amazing date with my dad yesterday!”
The orphan will smile politely, but immediately add: “Must be nice. I wish my father was still alive.”
Notice the mechanic: An orphan cannot allow you to have your experience without taking something away from it.
They cannot rejoice with those who rejoice because they constantly fear they have been forgotten. They drag every room, every conversation, and every testimony back to their own lack.
When Christians claim it is “insensitive” to thank God for safety because someone else didn’t get saved, they are displaying an unchecked Orphan Spirit. They are acting as if there isn’t enough “Father” to go around.
4. The Trap of People-Pleasing & Performative Peace
Perhaps the most tragic aspect of this entire discourse is watching Christians rush to validate the world’s offense under the guise of “empathy” and “compassion.”
We have developed a culture of Performative Peace—where believers shrink themselves, suppress the truth, and sanitize God’s goodness simply so the culture doesn’t drop its static on them. We mistake walking in love with keeping everyone happy at all costs.
In Galatians 1:10, Paul addresses this exact conflict with surgical precision:
“For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
Notice Paul’s ultimate conclusion: You cannot serve two masters at once.
A person whose primary motive is to please people can never fully please God. The moment human approval becomes your currency, you lose your spiritual backbone and forfeit your authority.
When Christians jump into comment sections agreeing that it is “insensitive” to thank God after a tragedy, they are not acting out of godly wisdom. They are engaging in cowardly people-pleasing. They are attempting to manage the fragile egos and secular anxieties of the public rather than standing firm on the uncompromised standard of God’s Word.
If you do not actively seek deliverance from this spirit of people-pleasing, it will force you into a state of dual allegiance. You will continually apologise for God, edit His character to fit human culture, and eventually drift further and further away from the love of God until your faith is entirely shipwrecked.
5. You Cannot Plant Salvation by Silencing Gratitude
As believers, we must ask ourselves: How do we expect to plant the seed of salvation in an unbelieving world if we are terrified to thank God for His mercy?
If we censor our gratitude to protect the delicate, unhealed feelings of an offended culture, we destroy our witness. Silence does not comfort the broken; it simply starves the world of the testimony of God’s goodness.
We cannot massage sin, nor can we massage bitterness. The Church must be delivered from this emotional manipulation. We must stop apologising for the mercy of God.
The Tactical Soul Audit: Orphan & Resentment Inspection
Take 10 minutes today to audit your heart and answer these diagnostic questions:
- When I see someone else receive a breakthrough, protection, or public blessing, does my spirit genuinely rejoice, or do I feel a knot of resentment?
- Where have I inserted my past pain into someone else’s testimony, demanding that they mute their joy to accommodate my unhealed wounds?
- Am I viewing God’s grace through a “Zero-Sum” lens- secretly believing that His goodness to others deprives me of mine?
The Executive Proclamation
“Father, Most High Judge and Sovereign Lord, I repent for every instance where I allowed an Orphan Spirit to taint my perception of Your goodness. I break the Zero-Sum mindset over my warehouse today. I refuse to compete for Your favour or resent the testimonies of others. You are infinite in mercy, righteous in judgment, and good in all Your ways. I choose to rejoice with those who rejoice, hold fast to Your Word, and proclaim Your thanksgiving without fear or apology. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Take the Work Off the Airwaves
- Listen to the Deep-Dive: Tune in to Episode 10: Kidnapped Royalty – Breaking the Architecture of the Orphan Spirit on the Sincere Milk & Solid Food podcast to learn how to evict scarcity mindsets and step into your identity as an heir. [Listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts]
- Do the Deep Work: Visit www.sinceremilksolidfood.org to grab your copy of Guided Journal: Vol 1 to process your soul audits, clear out hidden resentment, and anchor your mind in Solid Food truth! [Shop the Bookstore]
- Are You Ready for Solid Food? Join our waitlist for The Believer’s Life Cycle book and get Chapter 1 free! [Join the Waitlist]