Failed to act

Have you ever been in a situation where you realise you should be taking some sort of action? – maybe taking notes; moving to another location; going to help someone in need; kneeling before God to rededicate your life to God.

I’ve been in a couple of situations like that recently where I have felt I should be taking a particular action, but I found myself rooted to the spot, unable (or maybe unwilling) to take an action in public that would make me the focus of others attention (something I do not like).

I know for me, on one of those occasions I didn’t need to ‘take action’ as someone else spoke up before I was able to. However the other occasion was one where it was simply me who failed to act; it was simply me who failed to respond to an action I felt I should be making.

Why do we hold back? There can be a multitude of reasons why we fail to act, to hold back, including the fear of the unknown or the fear of being in the spotlight where our emotions are visible to everyone around us.

I regret my failure to act in a number of situations, some recent, some longer ago, but I keep on failing to act. I therefore pray that in the future whenever I feel I am being called into action, that I have the confidence to act, knowing that God is giving me the strength and guidance to do the right thing.