The Laban Syndrome has, by far, been one of my most favourite reads. As I read Laban Syndrome, it took me on a journey consisting of a lot of self-reflection and looking at how Laban Syndrome has played a role in my life in the past. 

Every chapter had such a significant impact in its own way. In the first chapter, Ps John Bendixen spoke about who we are and what we have. He broke it down for us to understand what Jacob’s constellation was, and how Laban came and abruptly stopped Jacob in his journey. Something that Ps John said here that really made me stop and reflect back on my life was, ‘Choices can let the plan of God flow, or even take you out of that very plan.’ You don’t always immediately see the impact of making a certain choice. 

Ps John went on to explain the life of Jacob and the intrusion of Laban in chapter two. And this tied in beautifully with chapter three, Unmasking the Laban Syndrome. This chapter was particularly helpful in beginning to recognise how a Laban behaves, its character, and what its purposes were – it made Laban’s intentions clear, and how to recognise it. This chapter was where lots of my self-reflection began to take place, this was where I recognised a lot of Laban’s behaviour within myself.

In Chapter 4, we took a deep dive into Jacob’s life and his constellation. I loved this because no matter how Jacob had messed up, deceived his father, left without being led, married the wrong woman, none of this mattered when he received the third blessing, the blessing of identity change. God restored everything back to Jacob. Whatever was meant for his harm, God turned it around for his certain good.

I personally loved the topic of chapter five, as this is something that I understand and I live it out, Planting for Destiny. One of my favourite quotes comes out of this part and it’s where Ps John says, ‘Having recognition and honour is the seed for access and release in your life. Dishonour is the seed for loss.’ This ties in so beautifully with what we’ve been taught over the years: “Whatever you do not honour, will leave your life.” 

We continue with chapter six, and the biggest thing for me here was, ‘Being free starts with being honest,’ and how ‘…the biggest challenge that we as people have; we refuse to evaluate effectively where we are.’ This is so true, if we can’t admit where we are, we can’t ask God for help it getting unstuck, because we don’t want to admit that we are stuck. 

Chapters seven and eight just beautifully piece together what the path forward looks like, where do we go from here. Just like God gave Jacob a strategy on how to get free from Laban’s grasp, He has a strategy like that for each and every one of us, if you can be honest and go to Him for help.