At Project Nexus, we talk about the fact that your passion, like everything else, is disputable.
We know it well.
The expression of anything we believe in is an opportunity for other people to respond–either in favour of or against.
For some, this means the avoidance of expression. Submission. Apathy.
For others, this can mean the embrace of antagonism, provocation, and conflict.
But what about when our expression is rooted in the desire to carry others with us? What about when our expression is for the purpose of movement? Action? Innovation? And all for the sake of others?
What about when our innovation is motivated by love?
It is not enough to withdraw from the conversation nor carelessly antagonise from a distance, disinterested in outcomes.
We become responsible for others when the Holy Spirit of God puts His vision in our hearts and asks us to lead the way.
Sometimes, when we feel the promptings of the Holy Spirit to move in a new direction, we encounter opposition.
Much like the pharisees’ opposition to the radical and subversive New Covenant in Jesus Christ.
Much like the rising up of the Ephesians in response to the threat that followers of Jesus posed to their economy of idolatry.
Much like Jewish resistance to the Gentile invitation.
Much like so many other examples throughout scripture, our anxious society, too, can be reactive to challenge and change.
This is not new.
When Spirit-led innovation is beginning to occur, the established system, and the people made comfortable within it, may indeed riot.
Backlash is to be expected to some degree, and “us versus them” mentalities can emerge under such circumstances.
But it softens animosity, encourages empathy, and cultivates a posture of partnership in the innovative leader when he or she considers that this backlash could be symptomatic of fear. Of instability. Of anxiety.
When comfort is challenged. When systems are interrupted. When change comes. Fear is felt.
Life-giving leadership understands this.
Life-giving leadership tends to this.
Because it finds its author in the Good and Compassionate Shepherd.
But it is not captive to it.
Innovation, by nature, challenges.
Our thoughts, words, plans, and actions are powerful.
Do we understand the weight of this?
Are we caring for and nurturing those we are desiring to carry with us towards new things? Or are we careless with our call to innovate?
Let’s love the ones we lead from one thing to the next.
