Sitting Might Not FeEl Like A Direction, But It Is

​Jesus once told a gathering of people:

If you are not for me you are against me, if you are not gathering you are scattering.

Jesus was telling the people there really is no such thing as neutrality.

There is no middle ground.

Passivity is a choice, and there is no such thing as an inconsequential choice.

Maybe you are not a Jesus follower, but I think the implications of his words here are applicable to all.

It is a reminder that being passive does not freeze outcomes in our lives, it simply hands them over to the forces that are already the most active.

In a relationship, silence hands things over to the status quo. In organizations, inaction empowers the loudest or most entrenched voices. In culture, disengagement rarely preserves values - it dilutes them.

Many people think passivity is neutrality. Not so. It's usually more about avoiding a price to pay for engaging. It's avoiding conflict, responsibility, being misunderstood, or a loss of comfort or belonging. But avoiding cost doesn’t avoid consequence, it just delays the price to be paid and lets others decide the price.

I am not suggesting that we all should be actively engaged in everything. But I am suggesting you can't say something is important to you and then not move in directions that look like importance.

Jesus was telling his followers that SAYING you're a follower doesn't make you a follower. Following looks like movement, like action, like GATHERING.

What's important to you?

What truths or principles or obligations are big enough in your life that you would call yourself a follower of them?

And maybe here's a bigger question. Do others know you are a follower of such?

I think what Jesus was telling us is that we can't take a stand by sitting. Sitting is too easy to confuse as no stance at all.

Sitting might not feel like a direction, but it surely is.