Sitting This One Out…

Sometimes too much of what we do⎯or think we do⎯is in the nature of simply sitting and seeing someone else do something. It is good to watch, to listen, to appreciate as others perform, but it is also essential to perform somewhat for ourselves. It is one of the irrevocable laws of life that we improve our power to do only by putting in the effort⎯only by practicing and performing.

Parents may be willing to do almost anything for their children. But there are some things that even parents cannot do for their children, no matter how much they may wish to. They can expose them to beneficial influences; they can set before them a proper example; they can send them to school; they can provide the encouragement, the atmosphere and the opportunities, but parents cannot learn their children’s lessons for them, and they cannot acquire the skills for them. They can provide them, for example, the opportunity to take music lessons, but they cannot give them the art of playing of performing. That comes with a price, with practice, with some pain⎯with participation.

No doubt the Lord God could relieve us of the effort of life, as He could send manna from heaven. But if we do some things for ourselves, we should never reach our highest possibilities. In a very real and ultimate sense, no one else can make of us what we will not pay the price of becoming. There are some things no one can make of us without our willingness, without our work.

And as to “sitting this one out,” let it be said to young people especially: Sooner or later in life there comes a time when it is performance that counts⎯not promises, not possibilities, not potentialities⎯but performance. Sooner or later there comes a time when sitting and watching are not enough⎯when doing something for ourselves and doing something for others is essential. It is good to sit and listen; it is good to sit and watch; it is good to sit and learn. But the law of improvement is the law of practice, of participation, of performance.

It is all right to “sit out” some things, but it is tragic to sit out life and let it pass as if we were not a part of the picture.