Proactive - acting in anticipation of future problems, needs, or changes.
A reactive lifestyle is one that is constantly exerting energy in "resistance or opposition to a (outside) force, influence, or movement. We often say - "That was an overreaction..." as we observe the incredible energy required to express defensiveness, hostility, anger, or retaliation. While reactive people spend much of their energy just trying to keep up with everything going on around them, proactive people expend energy as an overflow from secure identity, value and purpose. Jesus lived a proactive lifestyle. He was never overly sensitive, or overreacting, or unduly influenced by those persons and activities outside of himself. Instead, Jesus lived proactively from a deep inner source of life, love and peace. Which lifestyle more characterizes your life?
Jesus' thoughts, emotions and body were NOT subject to the circumstances outside of himself; instead, they were subject to something inside him. Some would say this is impossible, that Jesus must have responded to those persons and circumstances outside of himself. Otherwise, how would he have been moved to compassion, to healing, to preaching, to serving, to loving? I am learning Jesus' response to the world around him was actually a response to the presence of his Father, dwelling in him through Holy Spirit. Jesus did nothing of his own accord, but only that which he saw his Father doing (Jn 5:19-20, 12:49). In this sense Jesus was free from responding to his visceral desires, in accordance with his own best interest, but rather from his spirit, in accordance with God's best interest for everyone and everything around him.
This lifestyle Jesus demonstrated is what I call a proactive lifestyle. It's living inside-out, rather than outside-in. In other words, Jesus' words and actions sprung forth from his relationship with Father, through Holy Spirit living INSIDE him. Jesus only ever reacted to the Spirit of God within him, therefore the source of all his decisions began within him, rather than as a reaction to the events OUTSIDE him. In this way Jesus was not bound in the same way most of us are to the circumstances of our lives. His life flowed from the inside-out. It only takes a short inventory of the decisions we've made in the past 24 hours to see that much of our lives is indeed a reaction to our external environment, rather than as a response to the presence of peace and patience inside us. We often life outside-in lives, but the promise of the gospel is an inside-out lifestyle.
By way of illustration, let me share a vulnerable story. During the first few years of my marriage to my beloved wife, Kandi, I regularly found myself upset by how I perceived things she did and said. My frustration would turn to anger, which usually gave way to temper-tantrums, which usually gave way to fights, which usually ended with me disconnecting from her and hiding behind my many justifications for why she was wrong and I was right. Sound familiar to anyone else? I'll never forget the day God taught me that I allow my wife's words and actions to have too much control over my life. I wanted to ask God if he actually heard or saw what she did, but before I could justify my tantrum with him, he shared with me that I was allowing my thoughts, emotions and my spirit to be ruled by the circumstances surrounding me, rather than His Love dwelling inside me. I was being reactionary, not proactive; my sense of self was dominated by those things outside of myself, rather than the presence and power of God in me. He went on to teach me that he set me free on the cross, through the blood of Jesus and the gift of Holy Spirit, from ever again having to be ruled in any way by anything but God! Though I resisted this at first, it only took him pointing me to the life of Jesus to see what this actually looks like.
This revelation left me with a red pill and a blue pill. If I accepted what God was teaching me, then I would never again be able to justify my thoughts, emotions or actions on anything outside of myself. I wouldn't be able to blame anyone but me! "But," I thought, "who would be wrong when I didn't want to be?!" This path lined up frighteningly with Jesus' words, "If anyone wants to follow me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and IMITATE ME (Mark 8:34)." But on the other hand, this road of taking ownership for myself did offer the freedom I knew I so deeply desired. I was tired of a life feeling bound by my circumstances: up one day and down the next, engaged one moment and disconnected the next, free one moment and in bondage to people, opinions, expectations and my failures the next. I was tired of a marriage where my happiness was so unnecessarily bound my interpretation of my wife's words and actions. I wanted to be free to love my wife regardless of how I might interpret her behavior. I wanted to love like Jesus, free from bias, fear and insecurity. I wanted to love unconditionally, from the inside out. I wanted to experience the immovable love of God, like a mountain inside me, serving as my source of stability in thought, emotions and action. I wanted Jesus' life. I took the red pill.
As I have daily acknowledge Holy Spirit inside me, I am maturing into an inside-out lifestyle. I am less and less bound by my circumstances and more and more free to live from the unending source of life and peace and joy dwelling inside me - HOLY SPIRIT. This is a journey, but one well worth the sacrifice.
Below are a few scriptures that encourage me with an inside-out lifestyle:
- "Letting your mind be controlled by your selfish desires leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace (Romans 8:6)
- "What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul (Mark 8:36-37)?"
- "And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts (Colossians 3:15)."
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