The Resistance

by Lon on January 14, 2011

Most of us live two lives. The life we live, and the unlived lives within us. Between the two stands resistance. ~ Steven Pressfield in “the war of art”

Resistance is that pervasive gap between all you hope for and the action required to seeing it through.

I have no doubt there’s a wide spectrum of what’s on your bucket list or the dreams you’ve resolved to accomplish. Some of it might be silly others might be profoundly wondrous and frightening.

The concern I have (especially within my own life) is the even wider chasm between thinking about doing something and actually following through on it.

Every day I battle resistance.

I find solace in the fact that the apostle paul, one of the heroes of the bible, also struggled with resistance. He openly shares about his inability to do the things that he desires, and often doing the complete opposite. He describes this resistance as ‘the sin living within me’ (Romans 7)

The resistance goes by other names – your personal demon, the evil within, the flesh, the enemy, the great darkness, the devil.

Every one of us face resistance.

And I don’t mean when we don’t feel like doing the dishes, that’s just laziness. Anyone can do the dishes. Resistance is all that stops you from doing what only you can do.

It could be a new life-changing venture, a new discipline, a selfless act, or simply an awkward conversation that must be had. Either way it’s whenever you begin responding to that unique calling or prompting that resistance rears its ugly head.

It’s easy to describe resistance as some external force. Whenever something doesn’t work out right it’s easy to say it’s out of our hands, or it’s some form of cosmic spiritual warfare that we have no control over. Some of it’s probably true, but my guess is that the bulk of all that’s wrong with the world is due to this ‘sin within’.

The resistance can shred you to pieces but the kicker is that it’s self-induced.

And because of that, all of us can do something about the resistance.