We carry disappointments:  Life takes its toll.  If we lack a right perspective, disappointments and setbacks accumulate over time and can cause depression and an inability to have hope for the future.  Franciscan author Richard Rohr put it this way, “Until we walk with despair, and still have hope, we will not know that our hope was not just hope in ourselves, in our own successes, in our power to make a difference, in our image of what perfection should be. We need hope from a much deeper Source. We need a hope larger than ourselves.”… “This very journey is probably the heart of what Jesus came to reveal.”  I agree that when it comes to processing disappointments it is more about where you process them than how you process them.

What’s all this Resistance?
As we work our way through the red-zone we will encounter resistance.  In football, it comes in the form of 300 pound linemen who are determined to push us back.  In life it comes in four forms: 

• We carry disappointments
• We are tired and believe we deserve a rest
• We have lost vision        
• We have enemies

These are all serious conditions so let us investigate them one at a time.

Every Yard is Gained with Difficulty
Even with leverage the way forward is not easy.  Nothing meaningful and significant has ever come easily to me and I suspect the same is true for you.  Any large goal whether in business, family or marriage comes at a price.  In an interview, the late Steve Jobs, speaking about passion, said he would have never accomplished much at Apple unless he had been passionate about it.  Personally, I have found that passion is an inward drive that tells me what I “must do.”  It is the energy that gets me back up when I fail in an attempt to accomplish something meaningful.  Equally important to leverage, passion is an essential component in penetrating the red-zone.