Facing the Opposition

So you've got a plan, an inspiration, a mission.  Who is the opposition.  Every plan, activity or program has opposition. Someone is invested in the status quo, or it wouldn't exist in the first place. The opposition may be there due to financial constraints.  It may be there due to tradition. It may be just apathy. But there is always some opposition.

One form of opposition is inertia.  Newton's first law states that objects resist changes in their state of motion.  Objects at rest stay at rest and objects in motion stay in motion.  Inertia is not good or bad, it just is.  Inertia keeps a car sliding on the ice when the breaks want it to stop, but inertia also keeps the Earth moving forward when the Sun's gravity would pull it in.  

Organizations have institutional inertia.  A group of people are used to doing things one way and now it's different.  I went to vote this past week and the township hall was arranged differently than it has been in the last 16 years I've been voting there.  I made some comment about it and joked about not liking change and went on to vote.  While I was there I heard at least three other people comment on the new arrangement.  I imagine those ladies heard about it all day.

Organizational inertia is also not good or bad.  It just is.   We don't want to resist changing to make it better.  But if we spend all of our time changing, then we don't have time for doing.  Opportunity cost is another form of opposition.

So every plan has opposition.  The real problem is facing the opposition and getting past it.  Now maybe the opposition has a point and we need to redirect our efforts.  But if the plan, the task, the mission is a calling from God, then there is no choice but to face it and get through.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. - James 1:2-4

Every thing new has opposition.  When was the last time that there was a proposal on a ballot that was unanimously approved.  For some things the opposition is active and for others it's passive, but it's always there.  But if the plan is God's will, He will be there to see you through it.