Difficult Doing-nothing

In some situations doing nothing is the hardest thing to ‘do’ and there are not a few such situations in our lives. Even in them, we usually do our math and devise some solutions. As they came in our head, they get bigger and bigger, and finally push us to do them. However, as they are devised in haste by our own math, who is not so wise especially in such situations, many of them are not good but premature, poor, and even wrong.

In many situations, we have to be able to stay calm. Even if the situation seems crushing us, many times we have to be able to discard our poor math, and stay calm. It may be possible only when we put our whole trust in God. We have to be like the ancient Israelites who had escaped from the Egyptian slavery and faced the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s furious chariots chasing after them in dust cloud.

Moses told them to stand firm and just see what God would do to deliver them (Exod. 14:13). It must not have been easy for them to follow the counsel before such an imminent hostile and aggressive threat; nevertheless they obeyed it trusting in God. They were waiting for God to help them without doing anything for themselves while the dust cloud was coming closer. All of them must be scared and there might be some ‘smart’ people who suggested other ways, such as surrendering to Pharaoh. But they didn’t do anything but waited, standing firm, for God to deliver them from the life threatening situation. They entrusted themselves to God’s hands. And God divided the waters of the ocean that they could walk through the sea like dry ground.

Doing nothing in such a situation trusting in God is never actually doing-nothing. It may be doing nothing in body but in heart it is doing the greatest thing. It is trusting and setting whole hope in God. It is entrusting life and submitting oneself to Him. It is a violent fight, not with the situation itself in body but in spirit with one’s self–the self which doubted God’s power and love but trusted in oneself only. It is the process of taking God’s promise and wisdom over one’s math and thoughts. It is like taking a further step at the brink of the cliff thousand feet high, believing God’s hand will grab him between the brink and the bottom. It is putting all other things away from one’s trust but God. It is triumphing over Satan who doesn’t stop whispering to our ears, “Do whatever you want to and you believe is right; do not wait for the God, for He doesn’t care about you and there is no living god like that.”

Therefore, doing nothing in such situations, is the hardest thing to ‘do’. It is the evidence and manifestation of true big trust in God. It is a fiery furnace by which we are refined spiritually, which is called baptism (1 Cor. 10:2).