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A little leaguer is crying in the dugout. He has just struck out…again. The weight of failure settles upon him as he knows that he has let the team down. The coach attempts to lift his spirits and give him hope for the future. But he wants nothing of it. The promise of success (a hit) seems too distant to him. “Just leave me alone,” he cries.
Leave me alone. Those are words with which we are all familiar. All of us have probably found ourselves in positions where all we wanted was to be left alone. Perhaps we made a mistake, embarrassed ourselves or let someone down. Perhaps we just found that we were having difficulty dealing with the stresses of life and just needed a break. Solitude is sought. Relief from review is desired.
There are certainly times when we deserve to be alone. We need time to recharge our energies and to feed our spiritual selves. However, there are some occasions where to be left alone may not be the answer that is best for us.
As the children of Israel were fleeing from Egyptian bondage, they looked behind them and saw the army of Pharaoh closing in. Ten plagues from God had been inflicted upon Egypt and the children of Israel knew that God was on their side. Yet, when they saw the army approaching they became less committed to their flight to freedom.
And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD. Then they said to Moses, "Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, 'Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?' For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness." Exod. 14:10-12.
They had become so concerned with the immediate threat that they were willing to forego their future freedom so that they could go back and be slaves again. How shortsighted! Even in the shadow of the 10 plagues God wrought in order to set them free, they still lacked faith in God!
Exodus 14:12-14, Moses says to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” If they had only learned to trust God and always follow His direction!
The little leaguer could not see past the failure of the moment in order to envision the promises of future success. He just wanted to quit. Most everyone can relate to his experiences.
Have you ever reached the point that you just wanted to give up, find a cave somewhere and crawl into it just to get away? Successful people succeed not because they never encounter failure. They do fail. But they succeed because when they fail, they learn from the experience and try again, moving closer to their goal.
It is natural for us to become discouraged when things don’t go as planned. Maybe the coach could have inspired that young boy by telling him that Babe Ruth had more strikeouts than home runs. To be certain, no one is successful all the time. Putting things in perspective may have helped that situation.
William Feather said, “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” As Christians we need to understand that some hardships and persecutions will be coming our way throughout our lives. People who go it alone will probably let go. But we need not be alone. God is there for us, so hang on!
So when the temptation comes to withdraw and say, “just leave me alone,” be prepared to refresh your look to God and stand fast on His word and His promises. Don’t give up! Be faithful! Just like the Israelites, God has promised you a better land and He has faith that you can be faithful during your journey.
On Our Daily Walk today, may we focus our minds of the goal of heaven and always place our trust in God who has faith that we can live righteously.
Our thought for the day: “The price of success is much lower than the price of failure.”
May God bless you on your daily walk.
© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.
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