You Don't Need To Blend In Because You Were Made for More
When my second son was in 5th grade, our family spent the weekend camping with a host of other families from the school that our children attended. Sometime that Saturday afternoon, my son came back to our campsite fighting back tears and clearly out of sorts. He told me that one of the 8th grade boys had started messing around with him and a few of his friends, and in the process he had been shoved to the ground.
Armed with this information, my son and I set off to find this young perpetrator. When we found him, I approached him, with my son next to me, and asked if he knew who I was. He did not, so I informed him that I was the father of the kid he had just bullied. I then leaned in and quietly said, “The next time that you put your hands on my son, you will have a problem with me.”
The boy quickly apologized to my son, and as we walked away, I could see my son’s posture change to one of confidence, with a slight smile on his face as he was assured by this brief encounter that he had air cover and would not have to fear being bullied at school again.
That is the thing about strength and power: they protect us; they make us feel safe, confident and secure.
So the question is, why do we so often not live this way?
The Power We Have
I ask this question not to make an accusation, but to get us to think about how we live our lives and also as a challenge to myself.
I think the honest answer is that so many times we forget the power that is within us.
In his letter to the Roman church, Paul speaks about this power that is within those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ when he says, "If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you."
The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in me!
That is a powerful truth, and it should alter the way we live each and every day.
We Have Forgotten What We're Carrying
We as believers in Christ are called to live differently.
Yet, so often we wake up, scroll through the news and our social media feeds. We feel the weight of the world, and somewhere between the alarm and the first cup of coffee, we start living like ordinary people with ordinary resources facing an extraordinary set of problems.
As a result, we stress, we seek answers from therapists (some who do not believe in Christ). We turn to meditation or medication and a host of other things in the hopes it will provide relief when the relief already exists within us.
These are not the actions of people who live with death-defying power; they are signals that we have forgotten about the power we have within us.
And it is because of this power that we can be assured that we have victory in this life and whatever it throws at us.
Paul tells us this in his first letter to the Corinthians when he writes, "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." He then follows with this exhortation to the Corinthians, “Therefore (because we already have the victory), my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you . .
This is what living in the power of God looks like. Assured of the victory that is ours now, standing firm, and immovable.
So Why Do We Shrink?
I have watched it happen, and there are times when I have done it myself.
A conversation gets uncomfortable, and we go quiet.
Culture shifts in a direction that contradicts everything we believe, and we look the other way or, worse yet, acquiesce.
Adversity hits, and we crumble as if we have no foundation.
Someone challenges our faith, and we lose our voice and say, we do not want to offend.”
Power does not shrink in the face of opposition, so why should we?
I believe that for many of us, we have confused humility with timidity.
We have confused gentleness with silence.
We have convinced ourselves that the most loving thing we can do is to affirm or say nothing, stand for nothing, and offend no one.
But that is not the life Christ modeled. And it is not the powerful life He calls us to.
Paul exhorts his young disciple Timothy by telling him. “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control."
This is the operating system we should be living from, and fear, timidity, and giving ground have no part in it.
So What Now?
It is time for us as followers of Christ to stop living below what God has designed for us.
The true way to a fulfilling life is to live boldly and in the power that God provides through the Spirit that lives within us.
Not in arrogance or pride.
Not with a chip on our shoulder or a culture war mentality.
But in the quiet, settled, unshakeable confidence of people who know Who they belong to, what has already been won on their behalf, and the power that we possess.
That means speaking truth when it is inconvenient.
It means standing firm when the pressure to bend is real.
It means walking into adversity not as victims but as people who have read the last chapter and know how the story ends.
All of this, even if the earthly cost is great.
You are not waiting on more power. You already have it.
The question is whether you will live like it.
This week, in whatever room you walk into, whatever conversation you find yourself in, whatever adversity is sitting on your doorstep right now, walk in the power that has been afforded to you by Christ.
The world does not need more Christians who blend in; it needs more who show up fully and with love, and exert the power that lives within us.
Running the race with you,
Carlos
P.S. I still have seats available for the next LifeDesign cohort. If you are interested in learning more, you can email me at carlos@carloshidalgo.co or visit my coaching page here.
This edition was first published in The Life Design Newsletter on LinkedIn.