Whatever You Do, Don’t Join the Resistance.

Chris and I have been attempting to complete a training program in gospel counseling through our church, since about February of this year.  The training program requires that we read and complete exercises in the curriculum, and attend once-per-month review sessions.

I have missed every monthly review session but one due to work travel.  If I miss one more, I will have to drop out of the program and start again in a year or two.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because I had a very similar situation come up last fall when I returned to school.  I received an incomplete in my public speaking class based on attendance (I got As on all my speeches), ironically because I was out-of-town giving presentations for work.

I’ve been thinking a lot about resistance over the last few weeks.

Anything really worth doing is going to provoke resistance.  Some of the resistance is internal.  You may not be 100% ready.  You may be afraid of failure. You may be afraid of success.  Or you may simply be afraid of change.

Some of the resistance is external.  What you’re doing now is working, on some level, for everyone around you, whether that’s work relationships, marriage or other romantic relationships, family relationships, or friendships.  Everyone around you is in some way invested in the status quo, and consciously or not, they may resist your effort to do something epic.

The bigger the and riskier it is, the more resistance you’re going to face.

Maybe I’m weird, or maybe lots of people are wired this way, but resistance usually just makes me more resolved.  In fact, the more intense the resistance, the more determined I get.  At some times, this has been not such a great thing. At least one or two things, I probably would have been better off quitting, and I didn’t because by God, I wasn’t going to be bullied into giving up.  In the words of LOST’s  John Locke, “Don’t tell me what I can’t do.”

Then again, I might likely not still be married if the other woman pursuing my husband and a co-worker of mine hadn’t both told me within the same two days that my marriage was already over, it was hopeless, and I should just tuck my tail and give up.

I had, in fact, been considering tucking my tail and giving up till then.  But their resistance just jacked my resolve up to mythic, “I”ll be damned if I let this beat me” proportions.

I have some epic goals in the next few years.  There are things that need doing in this world, things that I am miraculously equipped to do. I’m betting there are some epic things in your future, too.

The resistance, inevitable though it may be, might slow us down. Let’s not let it stop us?