I think some people use faith as a crutch. I know I have. I also see it every day on my posts and advertisements for Define My Day.
“God is my plan.”
“The only book I need is my Bible.”
“Only Jesus knows my path.”
Rather than seeing God as a guiding father who wants us to do the best for ourselves, people seem to use faith as a way to absolve themselves of the need to take action at all.
It’s not only Christians. Whether you’re waiting for Kharma, the planets, or something else… I think there’s one thing that we all have in common:
We tend to externalize responsibility for our success. We sell ourselves short and say “it wasn’t meant to be” if it didn’t happen the way we hoped, even though we never really tried.
I’m guilty of it. I’ve prayed for the winds to change. I’ve hoped for better days and I’ve looked for some mystical answer to my problems rather than take responsibility.
Having faith in God’s plan, or the universe having your back, or that kindness will pay off is all good unless it prevents us from taking action. We are still ultimately responsible for our results. No divine power is coming to bail us out and certainly not fix messes we may have created ourselves.
Each of us have gifts that make us valuable in this world. God gave you skills, and guidelines on how to use them. I imagine He’d be a little angry if you wasted them!
So yes, you need to take action. Plan a life you love that maximizes your potential, so that you enjoy the best of what this gift of life has to offer. And when it ends, you can honestly say, “I did my best.”
You control where you go from here.
Keep moving forward,
Nick
