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Who I amReside in St. Louis Missouri currently, Lived in California & Colorado.Husband.Father.Pastor.Football Enthusiast.Teacher.Learner.Dreamer.Reader.Friend. [thoughts & comments blogged here are my reflections living life trusting Jesus as God]

Thursday, October 03, 2013

SHREWD or PASSIVE?

A major treat we've received since being in Orange County are passes to Disneyland.  I'm not a crowd guy but dang it...it's DISNEYLAND!  
I love the attention to detail, the creativity and having passes we never feel rushed to take it all in.  We go about 1-2 a month and sometimes for just a few hours for a quick family date night.

A week ago we went and chose to walk back to our car due to the massive lines and shuttle system was moving slow.  It was about a 10minute walk so we thought no big deal.  We got to our parking lot only to be turned back by a parking attendant because we were entering on the "Disney employee lot" which was NOT separated by the public.  The only distinction was each had their own main street entrance.   Even tho when we originally got to the park we exited through the employee parking lot we were told we couldn't re-enter that way.

Now I'm not one of backing down from confrontation when needed and I did challenge the guy as to why we couldn't just walk through the lot to our car.  But as i'm beginning to go from talking to arguing with the gentleman I realized I had my boys with me and needed to be careful the tone I was using...and it was at this point I froze.  I made the decision to quick arguing and we ended up having to backtrack another 15 minutes to get to our car.  Now I could've just barged through the invisible barrier he put up to us and said "who cares" but for some reason at that moment I didn't.  The quick thinking & reacting part of me was dead in that moment and my passiveness forced us all to walk around to the "appropriate" entrance.

Was the walk a big deal? No.
Was the time chatting as a family as we walked enjoyable? Yes
Am I making too big of a deal out of this? I don't know.

I think there are times where I am a little to passive in certain situations to avoid hurting someone's feelings or saying the wrong thing.  I don't want a reputation to be a brash or argumentative person but I also don't want to be run over or backed into a corner and just walk away for the sake of not creating an awkward moment.  This whole scenario reminded me of something I'm working on since this summer.

Rick Lawrence wrote a book called SHREWD that I read cover to cover, twice.

Here is an excerpt from the book; 

Shrewdness is a weapons-grade relational tactic--a way of thinking and acting--that Jesus long ago urged His followers to use in their uprising against the powers and 'spiritual forces of wickedness' of this world. Shrewd people (and Jesus is the Exemplar) first study how things work, and then leverage that knowledge to tip the balance in a favored direction. Shrewdness is the expert application of the right force at the right time in the right place. Most Christians have a negative reaction to the word "shrewd," but Jesus not only exemplified this way of relating to others in His redemptive mission on earth, He gave us a mandate to grow much, much more adept in our practice of it. 


I know my personality, at times, is to be passive in certain situations.  Sometimes passiveness is an asset because I like to observe and analyze a setting before acting.  At times it's a weakness because I want to be sure I keep myself in a place where people like me and what I do.
I don't know if there is a fine line between being SHREWD and BRASH or if sometimes being passive allows you to circle back and act with more wisdom in future situations after you've processed the experience?

Here is what I know, I see Jesus willing to offend the popular people's vote for the sake of truth and also to play the popular vote to sway the nay-sayers.  He was a master of both and there are a lot of settings I read Him encountering that I know would freeze me.

I'm working on allowing myself to act more SHREWDLY & not passive.  I want myself to stand for truth, conviction & resourcefulness instead of just keeping the peace.  
I'm also going to not let invisible gates keep me and my family from getting home 20 minutes sooner the next time we go to Disneyland.

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