Aggressive Passivity
My entire life, I have been known as that “laid back guy”. Easy going…quiet…observant. I like being that guy. But over the last couple of years, I’ve learned a lot about myself. One of the biggest discoveries has been something very subtle, but deadly. I allowed a passive nature to hide behind my easy going personality. In a very ironic way, that passivity aggressively took me in directions I never desired to go.
If I were to plant a garden in my yard, there are three ways that I could treat it. I could give it daily care, feeding it, watering it, weeding it, putting up fencing to protect it from critters, being proactive to give the plants everything they needed for health and produce. You would praise me for my care and dedication. The second treatment would be a full on attack. I could stomp on it, dump poison it, never water it, let the critters have at it…and you’d consider me an evil farmer. But there’s a third way that is so much more subtle, yet just as insidious. I could neglect it by doing little or nothing, letting the weeds grow, not giving it water, ignoring it, hoping it would turn out okay…you’d say, “Bless his heart, he just doesn’t have a green thumb”.
I allowed a passivity to lurk beneath my surface and it aggressively cultivated a life I didn’t want, while I hoped that it would all turn out okay. I have learned that if I am not intentional and deliberate in living out the life I desire, the life my family needs, and the life that God created me for, then it won’t happen on its own. I’m done with the mediocre garden.
I don’t want to just be known as that laid back guy. But rather, I’m that laid back guy who is on a mission.
