I’m not into Christian T-shirts, but I recently saw one I’d like to own. Walking downtown in our city, I passed an elderly man with this caption across his chest:
Step Back and Let Jesus Do What He Do
Bad grammar aside, that’s a pretty good thought. All the evil and sadness and poverty and darkness in our world ought to compel us to haul ourselves off our comfy couches and do something about it. As one writer put it, “Jesus rose from the dead; and we’ve got work to do.”
However, the psalmist, along with the steady theme of the whole of Scripture, cautions us against ever thinking that we are the central cause or effect in any of our efforts. God’s engagement with the world is not swinging on a thin thread, barely hanging on in anxious hope for us humans to show up.
All our exertion and skill and expertise fall fallow without God’s intervention. “Unless the Lord protects a city,” the psalmist writes, “guarding it with sentries will do no good” (127:1). In fact, “it is useless for [us] to work so hard from early morning until late at night” (v.2) because frantic activity ignores the truth that we are dependent on God’s kindness and mercy.
Oblivious to this truth, we toil and worry and sweat. We plan and manipulate and fret. We seldom rest. We rarely pray. And as a result, we find ourselves in the foolish place of living as though we are God.
This is no argument for a flaccid life, for living drowsy or inert. Rather, this is a call to be engaged with God’s redemptive work in the world-remembering always that it is His work in the world.
Tyler Wigg Stevenson put it well: “The world is not mine to save, but I can serve the mission of the God who has already done so.”
More:
We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the One who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work (John 9:4).
Next:
Why might you resist trusting in God’s power and work? How would you experience your world differently if you stepped back and trusted God’s work in and around you?
learning2serv on June 22, 2009 at 4:40 am
Home run. Hit me right where I needed to hear. Good morning, and glad I shared my coffee with you today.
winn collier on June 22, 2009 at 6:53 am
thank you. And thanks for the coffee.
krystalknight on June 22, 2009 at 9:04 am
WOW…I haven’t been on ODJ in a few months, and this morning I felt the Spirit tell me to visit. And then I read this! I’ve been dealing with a situation that I’ve been pushing and rushing God to change, and I’ve stopped praying about it because I’m too busying worrying that God won’t do what I’ve asked! I really needed this word this morning. Thank you for being responsive to the Spirit in posting it!