What are you invested in? If you are interested at all in personal growth and stewardship you have probably taken this into consideration already. But what about the investments of others? What about the investment of those persons you are connected to like your friends, family, work relationships? Have you taken into account the degree of their “buy in?”
Lines of resistance is a very simple principle that can yield fantastic results for the disciple looking to better steward his life. With every commitment you make there are two parties involved. It could be you and the company you work for, you are your spouse or simply you and someone you’ve met and started up a friendship. In order to make this new connection successful both parties involved need to be invested into what is the best outcome for everyone. This doesn’t have to relate to money at all. It could simply relate to the currency of your personal energies and time.
When you relate to others, lines of resistance help to establish two things.
- Value: When you resist being “on call” and “at the immediate service” of everyone in your life you essentially are communicating the value of your personal time and energies. You are saying, “I only have so much time and energy in my day and I must give account to God for how I spend it.” If you do not value your time then others certainly will not. You can determine just how easily it should be to access your time and attention by taking into account what the other party involved has invested. What are you communicating with how you spend your time and energy?
- Cost: Most people think very little about how they spend their time and energy. Therefore, they do not hesitate to abuse the sacrifice of others. To keep this in check you must create an appropriate “price of admission.” The cost required for various relationships and requests will vary depending on the level of personal investment and sacrifice. However, if you fail to create lines of resistance and simply hand out the most valuable resources you have in life you set yourself up for failure. When something has not cost an individual anything they are less likely to see its value. (David understood this in 2 Samuel 24:24.) Therefore, they will easily dis-guard it without a second thought. They may even sabotage the relationship if it seems to be an advantage for their own personal gain.
Each of us must answer for the stewardship of our own lives. How we handle the smallest of investments is simply a microcosm of how we will fail or succeed in the larger opportunities.
[...] you trusted. Trusting people to partner with you is a messy business. But if you implement lines of resistance you can increase the “buy in” of young leaders making them less likely to sabotage or [...]