I recently heard the story of a man who decided to take up golfing. He went out and hit his first ball, and it landed in the rough. When he went to take his next hit, his club missed the ball entirely, and instead tore into the anthill beside the ball, instantly killing thousands of ants. Thinking that the size of the club was to blame, he pulled out another club, swung, missed, and killed several thousand more ants. At this point, one of the few remaining ants looked at one of his ant buddies and said, “If we want to live, we need to get on the ball.”

How many times in life do we stand around getting pummeled by what comes at us? How many times do we let our current circumstances dictate our future? What’s preventing us from getting on the ball?

In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel was living under harsh and oppressive conditions under a harsh taskmaster in the land of Egypt. God wanted to bring them into their own land that He was giving them. Through a series of horrific plagues that ended with the death of every firstborn son in Egypt, the Pharaoh finally decided to let the Israelites go. Unfortunately, he was not a man of his word, and he decided to chase them after he had let them go. When the Israelites looked back and saw the Egyptians chasing them, and then looked forward and saw the Red Sea, they thought they were trapped.

So, Moses thought he would cool the situation down, so he said to them in Exodus 14:14, “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” While it is true that God will help us, and He will stand by us, He also expects us to move out in faith, trusting Him with our lives.

In the very next verse, the Lord answers Moses directive to the people by saying: “Why cry out to me? Speak to the Israelites. Order them to get moving. Hold your staff high and stretch your hand out over the sea: Split the sea! The Israelites will walk through the sea on dry ground.”

The Lord is very gracious, and he has way more mercy than we could ever imagine. And He certainly answers prayer! But there are times when we have to get on the ball. The answer is many times staring us in the face but we ignore it.

One of my favorite movies of all time is “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” In this particular sequel, they were searching for the cup that Jesus used at the Last Supper, believing that it was the fountain of life.

When they finally found the location of the “holy grail,” there were three booby traps they had to escape before they could get the cup. One of these tests was called the “Leap of Faith.” Indiana stood on the side of a very precarious rock ledge, and peered across at the other side, which would surely lead them to the treasure. The only thing standing in his way of getting to the other side was a large, deep gulf between the sides. What was Indy to do?

It turned out that it was a simply optical illusion with a cleverly disguised path connecting the sides. The only thing stopping him from reaching his goal was taking that first “leap of faith.”

We all get stuck in a rut sometimes, but the people who achieve the best that God has for them in life are the ones that keep on moving. Sometimes when we cry out to God, and it seems like He isn’t answering us, it’s because He’s already given us the answer. We have the next move. The question now is, are we going to stay where we’re at continue to get pounded by life, or are we gonna get on the ball?

Jesse Miller is youth pastor for Family Christian Center in Palmer and can be contacted at silverhonda84@hotmail.com.