I’m convinced that one of the things I’m to learn in this lifetime is how to discern what is mine to do while leaving the rest to Spirit. I’ve found it to be quite a balancing act at times: taking appropriate action, without shouldering what feels like the weight of the world.
The traditional American work ethic could be summed up as, “if it’s to be, it’s up to me” and “God helps those who help themselves.” We’re taught how to set goals, define action steps, and create checklists to get things done. As a self-employed sole proprietor, I assure you it’s easy to get swallowed up in the doing, doing, doing.
Contrast this approach with the movie The Secret, which has been criticized for making manifestation too easy and too passive – just visualize what you want and believe you’ll get it. I’ve seen the movie several times and read the book, and the presenters do talk about taking action when you feel moved to do so. But, in hindsight, the taking action step is probably not emphasized quite enough, especially given the joyful ease with which the visualizing step is portrayed and how hard we’ve all been working to follow the American work ethic.
I think Emilie Cady described the middle ground well when she wrote, “There are some things that we are to do ourselves, but there are others that God does not expect us to do…They are His part, and our greatest trouble lies in our trying to do God’s part, just because we have not learned how to trust God to do it.” While I haven’t mastered the distinction between my part and God’s yet, I have gotten it right on occasion. I’ll tell you about one such time next week.