No Need To Duck or Punch: What To Do When People Have An Agenda For You

“He (God) can do anything He wants any way He wants but, as a general rule, holy passion is a better guide than human pressure.” ~Beth Moore

You’ve heard the term for the fear-dodging duo: Fight or Flight


I would guess most of us also lean toward one of the two F words when we are faced with out-of-control circumstances.


Fighters will seek to control the Flighters.
Flighters tend to bow to or run from the Fighters.

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It’s like one is a Rooster and the other a Rabbit.


{Photo/Painting credit: Creative Thursday by Marisa}


Roosters fight. These are the more dominant personalities.
Rabbits flight. These are the more docile personalities.


It is important to know there are two general personality types and reactions if you desire to discern your response to control-ers if you are Rabbit, or your desire to control if you are Rooster.


I tend to be a Rabbit.


One day (many more than one) but on this one certain day, one Ms. Rooster, who was facing her own limitations called me and left a message on my phone while I was busy up to my long fuzzy ears packing for a move. Ms. Rooster was under pressure and naturally thought of me to take some of her pressure off, so when I listened to the message, it described the problem and then with an authoritative voice, told me what I needed to do.


Me and my fuzzy ears scrunched down, ducking from the weight of what I was told to do. I turned off my phone and went on a bike ride. (I realize the image of a Rabbit on a bike is a bit off, but bear with me.) Panic-prayers, not sweet ones were reverberating from my fuzzy soul toward heaven, my anxiety alleviated slightly by exertion on pedals and repetitive words playing in my head, “I’m not the Savior”, “I’m not the Savior”. {And in the back of my Flightful mind, I was going to run straight away from that relationship and never go back, I was.}


Alternating between my repeated phrase “I’m not the Savior” were opposing phrases: “You should. There’s no reason you can’t. She wont like you anymore. God will be mad at you for not helping her. ETC . . . ”


Bullying voices seeking to enslave me to the task which I did not have in my shriveled little heart to do. I should recognize it by now: The imposition of a law seeking my soul, threatening condemnation if I did not obey it.


As I pedaled, I prayed. I prayed a lot. And then reason kicked in. Not human reason, but Spirit reason. Reality really.


God said, “What have I given you to do Rabbit?”
And I stated my mission.
God said, “Whose mission does Ms. Rooster want you to carry out?”
“Hers”


I remembered that I’d been given an assignment of my own, and then I could see that Ms. Rooster had her appointed tasks and though I sympathized with her predicament, the fact that I was struggling to bear up under my own meant that I was not the one that would save the day for her.


In this revelation, I found release from the pressure.


The freedom to say the simple, short (and quite profound) phrase, “I’m sorry, no.”


Suddenly then, like a pin in a balloon, the pressure left.


And it still took me three days to be okay with saying ‘no’.


I bet you are wondering how Ms. Rooster responded to my no, aren’t you?


Gracious. Perhaps with my suggestions of other names she could call on gave her the idea that my day’s load was as heavy as hers.


Since that day, I’ve been talking to other rabbits who have this wee problem, and telling them that they only need to be about the task that God gives them. And He gives freedom to say, “I’m sorry, no.”


Linking up for a potluck at #TheLoft



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