Try: The Enemy of Do (#fmfparty)

After everyone went to bed last night, I sat down to write this week's FMF* on the word "try" when I got distracted by an email that my friend sent me which contained a link to a song called Settle Me Now.

As I listened to the song, I couldn't help but draw the connections between different "themes" that God has been weaving lately. The song coincides with the angst that I feel as I ponder the word "try". Am not sure if this will make any sense to anyone else but me, but here's my take on "try" anyway:


Sometimes try is the enemy of do.

When we say that we'll try something, there is hesitancy, unsurety, skepticism, and timid belief.

When we say we'll do something, there is confidence, surety, belief, commitment, and loyalty. It's going a step further than trying. "Doing" assumes that God will equip you to do whatever He puts in your path, that He will give what is needed in that moment to not just try something but to do it.

Try sometimes implies a one-shot, carefree effort. If it works it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't...not a big deal. It means no commitment, no staying-power, and surface relationships only.

Do implies seeing something through to the end. It means wholeheartedly investing yourself (not just a talent or skill) into something to ensure that it is a success. It means intentional commitment, vulnerability, and relationship.

Maybe the difference between try and do is simply a matter of semantics and personal meaning. Either way, I spend a lot of my life "trying" things. And it's great to try things because you learn about what you like and don't like and what you're good at and what you stink at with no strings attached. But there comes a point when trying silently becomes a cover-up for fear and discontent. 

Sometimes, trying can keep us on the run so we never really have to settle down nor do we have to lend time to cultivating things that we are capable of doing and are even called to do. Trying opens the door to the kind of busyness that lets us hide the fact that we are stuck in a endless cycle of striving, proving, or performance. Trying requires less patience and waiting that the commitment of doing requires. And trying breeds a spirit of discontent where we are always waiting for the right thing, the big thing, the best thing, the once-in-a-lifetime thing to come along that we become blinded to all that is sitting right in front of us.

It's time to stop trying and to start doing...to claim the things that I know are true, to step out in surety that God is leading the way, and to settle down long enough (in mind, body, and spirit) to let God work both in me and through me. Can't help but wonder what a difference it would make to my family and friends (and yes, even my church) if I stopped trying and started doing and in doing, give them something that is more substantial, meaningful, and life-giving than a "leaky, rusted-out bucket" (see Haggai 1:5-7 below).

"And then a little later, God-of-the-Angel-Armies spoke out again: “Take a good, hard look at your life. Think it over. You have spent a lot of money, but you haven’t much to show for it. You keep filling your plates, but you never get filled up. You keep drinking and drinking and drinking, but you’re always thirsty. You put on layer after layer of clothes, but you can’t get warm. And the people who work for you, what are they getting out of it? Not much—a leaky, rusted-out bucket, that’s what. That’s why God-of-the-Angel-Armies said: “Take a good, hard look at your life. Think it over.” Haggai 1:5-7

"Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10

*Five Minute Friday (#FMFparty) gives writers a word prompt. We are encouraged to write whatever comes to mind about that word in just five minutes.  No editing, no perfection, only writing from the heart.  To find out more, visit http://katemotaung.com/five-minute-friday/.  This week's word is "TRY".