Last Man Standing, "Wherefore Art Thou, Mike Baxter":
Mandy, the middle daughter and the most flightiest, is the understudy in Romeo and Juliet. She spends most of her time complaining about the fact she is not the lead, rather than preparing for her part. When "Juliet" falls off the stage, Mandy gets her dream role, except she doesn't bother to learn her lines.
Her father, Mike, tries to make it back in time to see her unintentionally hysterical performance, but he misses it. When he expresses surprise that she had to ad-lib from lack of practice, she retorts that he didn't even show. But you didn't do the work, he responds. You do the work, and I will show up.
Isn't that like our relationship to the Eibishter? We have our hishtadlus; when we do our part, He shows up.
We have to meet Him halfway. "God helps those who help themselves"—no, we are not omnipotent or all-powerful, but in all our lives we have some areas which we have some control over. In order to get a paycheck, one has to get up on time, plan for traffic, and do some work first (but I don't consider stalking "shadchanim" as hishtadlus).
You're right - we have to do our part. But, thankfully, Hashem sometimes shows up even when we didn't do our part. I don't deserve half the blessing I have in my life - I didn't do the work. It's a matnas chinam....and I'm grateful that Hashem didn't wait for me to do my part.
ReplyDeleteYes. That is very much so.
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