I have avoided conflict most of my life. I avoided fights because I thought I was too weak to stand up for myself or others. I avoided difficult conversations because of an overwhelming fear that would rise up within me. I just wanted peace in my life and for everything to be comfortable and easy.
I can look back on my life and see the ways God was trying to bring out of me the courage to stand up and fight. Sometimes it would help and I would gain courage and rise up, but other times I would shrink back and feel like a failure.
I took some steps in courage in sports. I found myself sitting the bench in 9th grade basketball when I had been a guy who played a lot the year before. I went to the coach to talk about the situation and he had one of those tough conversations where he told me I just didn't show the effort or the heart that some of the other boys were showing. If I wanted to play more I would have to play harder and not be such a nice guy. I wanted to play so I started working harder and playing harder and it paid off in time on the court.
I was watching Donald Millers video on Right Now Media - "Let Story Guide You" and Donald talks about the fact that conflict is an essential part of our story. A story has to have: 1. Lead character, 2. Objective, 3. Conflict, and 4. Resolution. Every great story has great conflict. If we want to the story of our lives to be a great story we have to realize we must overcome great conflict. So when I live my life to avoid conflict I am really saying I want an average life with an average story. If you want to live out a great story we need to have a great objective and then to overcome the conflict it takes to have a great story.
God often says to people in the Bible - Do not be afraid! I must keep my fear of conflict away from having a life of conflict and truly having a great story.
No comments:
Post a Comment