Resistance

As I was driving home one day last week, I had my window rolled down simply enjoying the weather. Cruising at a decent speed on the county road I placed my outstretched arm out my window. My hand bounced up and down to the resistance of the wind as it opposed the direction I was heading.

I continued to keep my arm outside the window for a while and eventually this got me to thinking…

Resistance…oh how this word and its definition seems to find its way into my life more often than I’d like it to.

Resistance, as defined by Dictionary.com
1. the act or power of resisting, opposing, or withstanding.
2. the opposition offered by one thing, force, etc., to another.
3. opposition to an attempt to bring repressed thoughts or feelings into consciousness.

I resist…even when I don’t know that I do.

Last week, God brought me face to face with the brutal reality that at this very moment in my life I…am resisting.

I try to make it a daily habit to look at my life (where I am, the things that I’ve done, and the things that I need to do), submit to my failures and my iniquities, bring forth any uncertainties or questions that I feel should be addressed, and finally seek counsel through asking for the direction I ought to go from there. Some days, I find resolution. But there are some days in which I don’t feel I can hear what that resolution is. And because I can’t hear it, I go my own way, sometimes making assumptions, or excuses as to what my next move “should” be. And that, my friends…is the beginning of my resistance.

Before I know it, I am a flailing arm out the car window, forcing its way against 60 mph winds. Getting nowhere.

So I have taken this word and opened myself up to tackling it head on.

The very next day was another windy one in northern California. My drive home had me observing some poor little birds as they fought with all their might to fly against that wind. And as I watched them I thought to myself, “Now why on earth are they fighting the opposing winds rather than going with the wind and soaring with hardly any effort at all?”

It was as if God said, “Um, Angie…why don’t you ask yourself that very same question? Why is it that you choose the difficulty of resistance with your life, rather than trusting enough in Me? I will let you soar, you just need to be willing to trust.”

Fighting the urge to do things my way is extremely difficult for me. But God has reminded me that surrendering every part of my life isn’t impossible to do.

There is a beauty that is revealed when we end the fight of resistance. Before we know it, God's winds pick up and carry us on a brand new journey. A journey with possibilities we can't even begin to fathom on our own. The struggle to battle the brutal winds of opposition is lifted, as He gives us the freedom in trusting in His ways.

God doesn’t love me any less when I resist. He just waits on me to submit everything to Him in order for that beauty to unfold…