If you’re a leader, you’re probably challenging your followers with some tough ideas. Hopefully you’re not just letting your tribe passively remain where they are, but you’re loving pushing them forward.

If you’re doing that, you’re going to run into opposition. Here are 3 ways you can react when people oppose your ideas.

1. Attack

You can go nuts. Puff up your chest. Yell.

You get offended that another person would challenge you. Ticked at their lack of thinking and passion, you start to assume that the one opposing your ideas has a few less brain cells than the average human.

2. Conform

You can shrink down. Back-pedal. Fill with fear. Massage the other’s ego.

You’re frustrated with their opposition, but you keep it all inside. While silently despising the opposer, you coddle to their words. You pull back without much challenge. You’re afraid that if you challenge them, you’ll lose them.

3. Stand

Don’t conform, but don’t attack. You’re not on the offensive, nor the defensive. Remain.

You’re secure and sure in this third approach. You’re opposition can lash out at you, but you don’t mind: their anger is their problem. Opposers can abandon the cause, that’s their choice. You’re simply going to hold the position that God has given you. You’re neither fearful, nor hostile. You’re content and steadfast.

How do you tend to react to opposition?

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” ~Jesus~

Jesus didn’t say it was hard for a person to chase after both money and God, he said “YOU CANNOT.”

Jesus didn’t say that it was really simple for financially sound individuals to understand His kingdom. Actually, Jesus taught that it is easier for a donkey to go through the eye of a needle.

So when you wake up in the morning to head to work, quesiton what you’re serving. Wrestle with the reality you live in. Sit in the tension that, though you may treasure Christ dearly, you CANNOT serve both him and the mighty dollar.

In our worst, we use poor countries to make our clothes because it’ll save us a few dollars (or make our company a lot of money). In our worst, we leverage ourselves to get for ourselves. We make partnerships with the intent of screwing the partner. We marry someone to use their love for ourselves. That is humanity at its worst.

And I think that no one is at their worst on purpose. Their seems to be very little – though some – intentional actions in this direction. Instead, we find many not even realizing their own selfishness (though it’s incredibly obvious to us). I’ve had friends who didn’t understand that they were being remarkably selfish in relationships. But me, selfish? Surely not….

And there we come to the root of the problem. Myself. I am the problem in the world. It may be easier to point to you, or a president, or a criminal. But no, it must be me. It must be me who can love more. It must be me who sees my sins as what they are. It is because I purchase cheap, comfortable nike sandals that sweatshops exist.

I’d never stand up in a mall food court and rally others to help keep sweatshops open, but I do it (and you do to) in a silent, thoughtless way. Every time I purchase sweatshopped clothing, I help keep sweatshops open.

(here’s a list of the 2010 Sweatshop Hall of Shame)

(and here’s a list of companies where you can purchase “sweatshop-free” clothing)

Lately, my wife and I were discussing a current event and we started saying.

“maybe God was trying to help us move on? or maybe God was testing our resolve to stay? or maybe we are being punished for missing our tithe 4 months ago? or maybe God is blessing us?”

At any given situation, you can have a discussion about what God might be up to. Every positive or negative moment can turn into a discussion about the intentions of God. People do this with every election, every natural disaster & even the recent US world cup win.

Here’s a quick way to short-cut the discussion: ask.

For any given situation, I could set up a list of 193 objective might have for the circumstance (I used to only be able to write up a list of 87, but then I went to a Christian college…).

You go to the doctor with sniffles. The doctor could probably list off 10 different reasons your nose is running. That’s not helpful, useful, or meaningful. If the doctor can tell you the 1 REAL reason, then you’re golden.

So just ask God what he’s doing. Historically, God has seemed to enjoy conversing with us.

Reading through 1st Kings, I came across a passage where God is explaining what will happen to His people if they turn from Him, disobey His commands & worship things other than Him. Read this and see if it sounds familiar:

“Israel will be become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples.”

That is what happens when we leave God out of our churches & Christ out of our Christianity. It happened to ancient Israel and it seems to me that it still happens every day

Sometimes a company or church or youth group will start using social media.

Sometimes they don’t know why, but they know everyone else does.

Here’s a tip: treat your new followers or friends or email subscribers or blog readers the same way you would a quest in your newly opened retail store. Any relationship is a 2-way street & if you hope to GET you’d better be ready to GIVE or the relationship isn’t going to last.

Example:
Tigertree is a terrific shop in downtown Columbus with some pretty cool offerings. The Tigertree twitter account is very active & engaging. They don’t just post links to their shops. They don’t just tweet about themselves. They engage. I’m a big fan of their stuff, because they made the first step.

I’m working through a 12 week training with CalledToYouthMinistry.com. This week, I had to take a bunch of personality tests. Thought I’d share em:

I’m 88% a Millennial. (Even thought I’m 100% part of the Millennial generation). Take the quiz from Pew Research.

I’m an ENFP according the to Jung Typology Test. You can take the personality test at HumanMetrics.

I’m 53% sanguine, 18% melancholy, 15% phlegmatic & 15%Choleric according to this temperament test.

Take some of these tests and post your results in the comments. It’ll be interesting, I swear…

{thanks to tim for showing me}

Television might actually morph into something positive. Cool…

Average americans breathe 16-20 times per minute.

Your body was designed to breath about 6 times per minute.

Sit for a minute and take 5 deep breathes. 10 Seconds each.

You’ll find that, in our culture, pausing to simply breathe is one of the most subversive acts you could do.