In this story, I’m going to call them Child A and Child B, because I don’t want to embarrass Child A. But I want to share the story with you (paraphrased, mind you) because I have the sneaking suspicion that, if you have any school-age children, a scenario like this just may have played itself out in your home.
Child A: “Mom, my schoolwork is so boring. I hate it. I’ve already worked on it for a little while. Can’t I take a break?”
Me: “Yes, but you know when it has to be done. If you don’t finish it, you won’t be able to go to Great Wolf Lodge with me and your other siblings.”
Child A: “But Mom, I tried. I really did. And it was just so boring. And schoolwork is always boring.” (Begins to cry.)
Me: “I’m sorry, but you had enough time to do it, if you had gotten started when I first told you to. If you don’t get it completed, you know the consequences.”
Child A (with more tears): “But can’t you just help me? What if I don’t get it done?”
Child B: “Actually, you could be doing it right now instead of sitting here complaining.”
Score 1 for Child B, by the way. And, for those of you who might be wondering, Child A did eventually finish his/her schoolwork with plenty of time to spare (and he/she even told me it wasn’t as bad as anticipated!). But the point is…well, what Child B said.
Sometimes, instead of complaining about a problem, we just have to buck up and do something about it.
As Christians, you and I believe that God will protect us, take care of us, and a whole host of other wonderful things. And that’s true. He will. But too often, instead of taking action to make things better for ourselves, we sit around waiting for God to visit deliverance upon us.
Don’t get me wrong—there are absolutely times we need to wait on God’s timing. But there are also times we need to take action and not just sit around waiting to be rescued.
Take, for example, that day when Moses and the Israelites stood at the shore of the Red Sea, having fled Egypt. Pharoah’s army was behind them; death by drowning was in front of them. Or so they thought. So everybody stopped right there, and Moses said, “Don’t worry! Just stand right here. God will rescue us. You just wait” (my paraphrase).
You would think God would praise Moses for his trust, right? But instead, He said (and this is a direct quote), “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.” In other words, He said, “Why are you just standing there? Get going!”
But wait just a minute. That was the Red Sea in front of them. They could have drowned. Didn’t they do the right thing by waiting on God?
Apparently not. Maybe (and this is speculation on my part) God wanted them to trust Him so implicitly that they just waded into the Sea and watched the water evaporate. I don’t know. But whatever God had intended, having them stand there and wait for a divine rescue was not it.
I’m not suggesting that any of us should take action to solve a major dilemma without consulting God, or that we should just run out willy-nilly and make things happen on our own. Not at all. What I’m saying is that we need to be aware of the possibility that God might want us to do something to participate in our own deliverance.
Maybe He wants us to seek counseling and work on our issues, instead of complaining but taking no action.
Maybe He wants us to go back to school instead of merely grumbling that our job doesn’t pay much.
Maybe He wants us to learn how to better discipline our kids instead of spending so much time complaining about their behavior.
I can’t tell you exactly what God wants you to do in your situation, or if He does, in fact, want you to persevere through a time of waiting. But I can tell you that when you face the Red Sea, you (and I) need to be asking Him whether we should wait, or take action, or some combination of both.
Let’s not rush off like loose cannons and try to solve our own problems. But let’s also not presume upon God by standing by passively and waiting for Him to do all the work.
God can, and will, do His part. Always. But let’s make sure we ask Him if we need to be doing our part, too.
(See Exodus 14 for the story referenced in several places above.)