Don't Just Do Something, Stand There!

Monica Portogallo ponders the wisdom of taking time to reflect and pray before taking action.

When I first heard this playful transposition of “Don’t just stand there, do something!” at a support group for the loved one of alcoholics, I didn’t like it. I took umbrage with the idea that I should be passive in the face of a challenge. Over time, though, I’ve come to see the wisdom of not “just doing something.”

Don’t just do something

Somewhere along the way I got the idea that one must act right away in the face of a conflict or challenge, or somehow it would be ineffective. After all, doing something gave me a sense of being in control—I was taking action!—whether or not it actually helped the situation. In my misguided efforts to “do something” over the course of my life, I have done things like:

Spent hours upon hours scouring self-help books for solutions to problems that were outside of my control.
Argued with a drunk person who wouldn’t remember the conversion the next day.
Worked up an elaborate defense to refute lies about me that no one actually believed.
Bought gadgets to solve conflicts and ignored the root problems.

None of those actions themselves are necessarily the wrong thing to do in all circumstances, but they were wrong for me in those cases. I was just flailing about trying to do something, anything, to make things better.

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Stand there (in prayer)

If I had taken some time to reflect—to stand there, if you will—I could have saved myself some anxiety and frustration. Perhaps I would have even come to effective solutions instead of just spinning my wheels so I could feel like I was doing something about my problems.

I now realize that being passive and choosing not to take action right away are not the same thing, especially if I am bringing my problems to God in prayer. Taking the time to reflect and ask God for guidance turns my knee-jerk reactions into thoughtful responses that are more likely to actually work. Sometimes when I stand there, I get the chance to see a path that God lays out before me instead of trying to hew out a path on my own.

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Of course, there are going to be times where I will need to act right away, like getting out of a literal (or figurative) burning building right away without pausing to consider the best technique for putting the fire out. Still, I’ve learned to be more discriminating in how I approach problems.

And when I “just stand there,” I find God standing there with me.

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