Resurrection of Your Inner Hero

Merriam-Webster defines passive as “tending not to take an action or dominant part. Passivity was what described the thing or force holding me back. I scoured the internet and every book I could get my hands on but couldn’t find any resources on it. Sure, I found snippets here and there, just enough to tease me but nothing substantial. Immediately I signed up for every boot camp offered by Ransomed Heart Ministries as to glean more insight and knowledge on the topic of passivity. I also read and listened to every resource offered by John Eldredge and Ransomed Heart Ministries. It wasn’t until after participating in their Spring 2010 boot camp and talking with one of the speakers about passivity, did I realize that there were not any resources on how to get out or overcome passivity. God in turn placed it on my heart to come up with a way to walk with Him on overcoming my passivity and help lead those men I counsel gain freedom as well. Recorded in these pages are the words, lessons, and processes that God used in my life and some of my clients to gain the same freedom you can have.

Now that I knew what passivity was, I could see how pervasive it had become in certain areas of my life and in other areas of my friends and clients lives. Passivity is not a black or white, all or none, problem, it is more of a variety of grays or different shades of gray, but if left unchecked passivity can enter into places or areas of strength. Passivity had become like a virus in my life, invading various aspects and areas without ceasing. The more problems came up in life, the more passive I would become. The level of passivity just kept increasing and started to become a major focus or theme throughout my adult life. Getting married only exacerbated the passivity that was already affecting my everyday life. Couple this exacerbation with the instant family of stepsons and I became a recipe for disaster. But that didn’t stop it as we had two more children and myself going back to school to change careers. My passivity had infiltrated most areas within my life and I didn’t know what to do.

Passivity has been with mankind since Adam and Eve. Yet through Christ’s death for our sins—including our passivity—we’re able to be new men and can be set free. This allowed me some grace, something God gives us a ton but we never give any to ourselves. He knows what we are trying to accomplish and is willing to give us grace, but Satan also knows what we are trying to accomplish and will do everything in his power to stop us.

When we were children playing make-believe heroes, no one us ever wanted to be cast the armor bearer who sits idly holding the reins or cleaning the knight’s weapons. We all wanted to be the knight who wins the battle and rescues the beautiful damsel in distress. This should be the same for our life, after all, other than God we are the major character in this epic tale and many of us are tired of casting ourselves as the armor bearer.

Except we can’t start out being the knight. In order to become a knight, we first had to become a page, then a squire, and then we become a knight. In order to become a page we had to be selected by an existing knight of noble birth, usually an uncle or relative, at a young age to train under him. Fortunately for us, Jesus has chosen us to be His pages. We are of noble birth and grafted into His Kingdom.