Sometimes, resistance is good!
Working at my desk today, a true story I heard while traveling and filming in 2011 came to mind.
I had traveled to the Biosphere in Arizona. If you have never heard of Biosphere 2, it is where NASA and other Space related agencies conducted a human experiment in the middle of the desert of Arizona.
A group of men and women, climbed inside a giant bio dome intended on simulating the planting of mankind on mars or a similar planet. The goal was for it to be self sustaining environmentally.
Its first attempt failed. During its second attempt, they were forced to compromise the experiment a few times due to a medical emergency that could not be dealt with, within the Biosphere's medical area.
It was an amazing tour and lesson in science.
Several universities now co-own it with the University of Arizona, but they still give tours. Inside are sections of environments creating biospheres that can not and should not exist in a desert. Including a tropical rain forest, coastal plains, ocean, etc. The universities utilizing it, conduct environmental impact related studies in it.
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| Source: Biosphere 2 |
If for no other reason than wanting to look at real life architecture resembling Star Trek, Star Wars and Battle Star Galactica, its worth a road trip to this remote location in no where. But the stories, history and science will intrigue your imagination as well, while you walk through its biosphere domes, view its inhabitants and see how and where the 1980's crew members lived during the experiment.
Resistance is Guaranteed
Working actually on a Minecraft Tutorial for YouTube this afternoon, I kept running into a particular problem and was looking for a solution. Then my foot accidently kicked the cord of my 32 inch computer monitor twice, causing it to go off.
Let's face it, times have been challenging over the past three pandemic years under the hands of an over reaching, constitutional breaking government.
Resistance became a theme of those pushing progressive socialism, but I see something they don't.
There are two sides of resistance. On one side, you have the resistance, that which is pushing back against something else. Like the weight on a barbell at the gym. On the other side you have that which is encountering the resistance, like a person lifting the barbell at the gym, its making them stronger. One is the source of, the other is the result of.
Resistance is Good. Resistance is Necessary. Not for the reasons or ideals of political endeavors and activism, but because that is how God created things.
People over the years have asked me, "How can you believe in a God who allows bad things to happen to good people"? There are lots of variations of this question. To many for me to write out.
I have often asked a similar question when there are those I have worked with who were downright jerks who kept getting promoted, receiving higher wages, vacations, were able to get away with abusing company time, while others who followed the rules kept being given more restrictions. It didn't make sense to me from a moral or belief perspective.
Then the Biosphere experiments popped into my head. I learned something very valuable from one of its failures.
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| Source: The Press Enterprise |
The trees planted within a Biosphere grew quickly, lushly, and produced a lot of fruit, everyone was excited about that, it seemed like a winner. That was until they discovered that the adult trees fell once exposed to a light wind in a real world environment. Why? Because they lacked resistance. Their roots were not strong. There was no wind within the biodomes. In future experiments, they introduce wind resistance and the trees are now stable and strong.
In the real world, unprotected world, the world you and I live in, there is wind, rain, hot and cold weather. All of us learn to adapt, all of us after a few years of life can endure most conditions relatively well.
The same is true for plants and trees. They have to build up a stronger root system to endure wind, and environmental conditions. A full grown well developed tree in northern California can live thousands of years, but a tree in the biosphere that was protected since being a seedling in a "safe space", will simply fall over from a light wind. Why? No resistance to wind.
Safe Space Resistance? Is there really such a thing?
We live in a political and social culture that spends a lot of time talking about "Safe Spaces", and "Resisting" anything that is disliked. The "Cancel Culture" thriving on Twitter and Facebook. (Why I have now left, Twitter and Facebook) Fact checking and censorship to demand a single observation, a single perspective, a populistic view point.
The ideology of resisting by hiding in a safe space is what happened in the biosphere with the trees.
Yes the trees sprouted quickly, they grew fast, were lush and protected. However, exposed to the harsh real world, they fell over the moment they encountered pressure. They broke at their roots, the very things intended to support them in crisis.
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| Source: Peter Timothy Cooper |
What we see here, is that resistance creates strength, endurance, stamina, unless you are the source of resistance, then it creates the opposite. It's a necessary part of life on planet earth. If God were to take away all suffering, we would all die. Resistance is in every part of being human, from the time you are squeezed or yanked out of the womb, until your last breath. We need resistance.
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| Source: KCBD |
If you don't ever exercise or move around, what happens? You lose muscles due to atrophy. In other words, your muscles dissolve. Why? No resistance is creating new muscle to replace the former muscle.
So I conclude, God knew exactly what he was doing when he created or allowed "bad things to happen to good people", similar to how he allows, "good things to happen to bad people". The old saying, "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger" is true.
Not because of the inability to overcome the resistance, but because resistance builds up whatever is needed to be overcome.
Resistance is good if its making you stronger. Not too helpful if you are the source of the resistance for someone else. You're building them up, making them stronger, creating mental, emotional and spiritual muscles in them.
Conclusion:
Keep getting back up if you're pushed down. Push, unless there is a sidewalk that goes around. Have faith when it looks hopeless. Don't give up, when you feel like giving up. If one thing isn't working, try something else. Your difficulties are making you stronger, able to endure more, able to survive and thrive.
No one walks into the Gym a wimp and comes out two hours later ripped and buff. Instead, you go to the gym several times a week, multiple times a month, year after year. Repeat resistance is necessary, different kinds of resistance. You need the bar bells, the treadmill, the exercise bike, swimming pool, aerobics. Each is a different kind of resistance.
This is similar to life, you will encounter multiple kinds of resistance. Do not pop a pill to try to make it go away, push forward, believe, endure, keep going. Do not hide in a safe space, trying to protect yourself, that just makes you have weak roots when a big storm comes.