Nothing Turns Until You Turn It

In late May of 1940, more than 300,000 Allied soldiers were pinned against the sea at Dunkirk. The Royal Navy had the ships. It had the guns, the training, the ability. What it could not do was get close. The water off those beaches was too shallow for destroyers, and the men were standing in the surf waiting. They were sitting ducks.

So the call went out for small boats. Fishing boats. Ferries. Lifeboats. Pleasure yachts. One of them, the Tamzine, was an open fishing boat less than fifteen feet long. Around 850 vessels crossed the Channel. Planners hoped to bring home 45,000 men. They brought home 338,000.

Nobody would have picked those boats based on ability. They were picked because they were available. They showed up, they went in close, and they did the work. You can't fake showing up and talking about it doesn't count.

I think about that because I can be guilty of the opposite. I have James 1:5 written on my whiteboard: "If you ask God for wisdom, He will give it to you." It looks good up there. It is also completely meaningless unless I sincerely ask, and then actually do what He tells me to do. A verse on a whiteboard is a decoration. A verse obeyed is a direction.

People say "attitude is everything." I believe that's incomplete. Attitude with ACTION is everything and how anything gets done. We can have great attitudes, sit in meetings, and talk about what we are going to do. It even feels good. It gives us community and the sense that something is moving. But meeting about a thing has never once gotten the thing done.

Jesus did not soften this. He looked at people who had the language exactly right and asked:

That is not a gentle question. He is saying the words are worthless without the doing. Then He tells them who He is looking for: the one who hears and puts it into practice, who digs down deep and builds on rock. Digging is work. Nobody digs a foundation in a meeting.

Solomon said it just as bluntly: "All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty." (Proverbs 14:23)

Mere talk leads only to poverty. Read that again in this market.

Most of us are not short on ability. We know what to do. Make the calls. Get in the car and go see the referral partner. Reach back to the past client who trusted us once. Look hard at the budget and cut what needs cutting. The problem is not knowledge. The problem is that we are standing on the beach, waiting for the tide to turn in our favor.

It won't. Nothing turns until you make it turn.

When God asked, "Whom shall I send?" Isaiah did not hand Him a resume. He said, "Here am I. Send me." That is availability. God has never been limited by our ability. He has only ever asked whether we would go.

It's time to get up and do.

Where have you confused talking about it with doing it? What have you written down, agreed with, or prayed about that you have not actually acted on?

Before noon today, do the one thing you have been meeting about, planning for, or waiting on. Make the call. Schedule the visit. Cut the expense. Then ask God for wisdom on the next step, and take that one too.

Choose availability and put your ability to work towards a righteous goal. That's attitude with action. Nothing turns until you make it turn.