I am the Solution to a Problem on Earth #23

Have you ever found yourself faced with a problem where you realize that, despite the fact that many of you are aware of it, you are the only person who is disturbed? That the people around you seem not to be disturbed or maybe they are disturbed but not to the same extent as you are? Take the case of poverty, maybe you are disturbed more than anyone else, when you see the poor, you ask yourself, like Mother Theresa, “Why is there so much poverty in the world? What can be done to even limit the poverty in people’s lives?’’

In the year 1000 B.C., Israel had a king named David. While he was still young (about 15 years before he became king), one day his father sent him to bring food to his brothers who were on the battlefield. When he arrived there, he realized that the whole army of Israel, including his brothers and the king, were paralyzed by a giant warrior from the opposing camp, called Goliath. The latter was insulting the God of the Israelites, and no one dared to move the little finger. It greatly disturbed David, to see that he was apparently the only one who was disturbed by the insults that this philistine Goliath was profaning against the God of Israel. So he had to face these questions when he arrived at the battlefields, seeing how Israel and the name of their God were despised by the Philistines, more precisely by Goliath. When you read the rest of the story, you will see that David decided to act, while others were watching (1).

(1) And David said to Saul, “Let no man be discouraged because of this Philistine. Your servant will go and fight with him.

Also before Christ, there was an Israelite named Gideon, who had to ask himself questions when he saw how Israel was oppressed and humiliated by the Philistines (2). This may also be your case: something is bothering you deeply and you ask yourself, for example, “Why is the quality of education in my country so poor? The greatest nations in this world are the ones that are full of people asking “what can I do for my country?”, rather than “what can my country do for me?”.

(2) Gideon said to him, “Oh my LORD, if the Lord is with us, why have all these things happened to us? And where are all these wonders which our fathers tell us, when they say, Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt? Now the LORD has forsaken us, and delivered us into the hand of Midian.

By the way, I am talking about something that disturbs you to the point that you are so disturbed that even your sleep is taken away, and the people around you pass by it. By using the analogy of a pregnant woman, we realize that she only feels relief and calm on the day she brings out her child, the day she gives birth to her baby. It is the same for the one who has a burden within him: he can only be at peace when he sees his burden being fulfilled. This burden becomes so much of a burden that not fulfilling it is like the failure of a lifetime. Like Nelson Mandela — who fought all his life for the abolition of apartheid in South Africa — despite the level of suffering he had endured, he refused to accept the benefits and interests offered to him, provided he agreed to give up his struggle. So much so that the realization of his burden was the very reason for his existence, to abandon his struggle would have been for him the equivalent of a lifetime of failure. It was unacceptable for him to live to see his people suffer. That is why he said:

Until you find a reason why you are ready to die, you haven’t begun to live yet

This is also the case with Gandhi: he agreed to go on hunger strike because of his people’s persistent problems. He was determined to do everything possible to help his people regain their freedom and rights. He therefore felt obliged to solve this problem before he died.

The relationship between your problem and your potential

To understand this point, let’s take a look at the trees. Trees solve a lot of problems: They allow us to have fresh air (trees extract carbon dioxide from the air during the day, and release it during the night, when many of us are sleeping, or getting ready to sleep). They allow us to enjoy their fruits, to use the leaves to extract medicines. With its wood, we can make furniture, chairs etc. Thus, having a core of a tree in our hands, means having something that has the capacity to solve many problems. However, while it is still in your hands, it has the potential, but it does not yet have the capacity.

How then does the tree develop its potential until it is able to solve all its problems? I say “its” problems, for the problems that you are called upon to solve on earth are actually ‘’your” problems, because it is like a task that has been given to you. We know that the tree goes through many steps, including: you have to have its nucleus that you are going to put under the ground, throw water, put chemical fertilizers on it, take care of it — so that one day it will come out of the ground, it will submerge outward, grow until it is able to solve the many problems that it already had the potential and yet not the ability to solve.

The same laws also apply to human beings: we have the potential from birth, but we just have to develop it to have the ability to solve the problems we are called to solve.

Sometimes some of the problems we encounter today prepare us, equip us, make us capable for the problems we are called to solve tomorrow. It is good to have a burden, to want to solve a problem, but it is also important to know that, willingness alone is not enough — in addition to that, we must have the capacity. This is why many people regret after having failed a task that they really had the will to succeed, but lacked the capacity. In other words, regretting shows that, despite the will to succeed, one thing was missing, and that thing is often capacity.

Willingness alone is not enough

This is how the Creator allows us to encounter certain problems in our lives in order to prepare us for the problems we are called upon to solve. When we speak of God as a provider, His ability to provide extends to equipping us to be able to solve the problem we have come to earth to solve.

When we analyze the story of the Israelite David mentioned above, we realize that he received the revelation or prophecy of his future kingship from a very early age, from his childhood. On the day he arrived on the battlefield, when asked by Saul (who was King of Israel at the time, and David succeeded him) about his decision to fight Goliath, David gave an interesting answer, saying, “The LORD who delivered me from the claw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” (3) In other words, it was on the day he came face to face with Goliath, that he understood that his battles of the past with the lion and the bear were (4) only a preparation for him, for his future life because they allowed him to be reassured, to have self-confidence and therefore to be prepared.

(3) And David said, The LORD who delivered me out of the claw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, will deliver me also out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee.

(4) And David said to Saul, Your servant was feeding his father’s sheep. And it came to pass, when a lion or a bear came and took one of the sheep out of the flock, that I ran after him, and struck him, and plucked the sheep out of his mouth. And if he stood up against me, I took him by the throat, and I smote him, and I killed him. So your servant struck the lion and the bear, and the Philistine, that uncircumcised man, shall be as one of them; for he has defiled the host of the living God.

If he had never had to face that lion and that bear, he would never have had the audacity to stand up against Goliath to fight against him. This is just to say that the events we encounter are in reality a preparation for the problems, the tasks we are called upon to solve in our lives. Even David’s victory over Goliath was not the finality (for he was called to become a King) but also a preparation because at that time the greatness of a King was measured by his ability to defend his kingdom against the attacks of the enemies of the kingdom. David’s victory over Goliath gave him fame, allowed him to have a thousand soldiers (5) under his command, which allowed him to learn how to lead, and the number of people he led only increased until the day he became King.

(5) He (Saül) took him away from his person, and made him head over a thousand men. David went out and returned as head of the people…

The important thing to know is, David did not become King suddenly, abruptly. Despite the prophecy of Samuel (one of the greatest prophets of all time), it took some preparation in his journey to develop his potential. He had the potential to solve Israel’s problems, but he had to develop it by facing small problems — the lion, the bear, Goliath, starting to lead the soldiers, fleeing from King Saul who wanted to execute him so that he wouldn’t take his place, etc. He had to be able to do this in a way that would make him a king. All these little problems that David had to face only developed his potential to such an extent that on the day David became King, he was different from the David to whom Samuel had given the prophecy — these trials had forged his personality and made him capable of leading a whole nation, and of dealing with all the problems that would come afterwards.

Trying to solve a problem too soon can turn into a nightmare, even if you are destined to solve it

It’s like birthing a baby prematurely. The chances of survival go down, the earlier the baby is exposed.

Let us take for example the illustration of a person who has the burden of becoming a doctor, if he does not go through the preparation, through the tests that everyone who wants to become a doctor goes through, that is to say learn medicine, he will never be able to do a surgical operation despite the fact that he may have the potential to do so one day. So willingness alone is not enough, one must train oneself to develop one’s potential in order to be able to solve one’s problem, the one that one is called upon to solve on earth. The Bible also speaks of a young man named Joseph who, despite the fact that he had the revelation, the potential to become a great man, could not be able to assume all these responsibilities the day after this revelation (he had several dreams showing him the future that was in store for him) (6). That is why it was important that he went through many problems in order to develop his potential, his character and his personality.

(6) Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers, who hated him even more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream that I have had! We were binding sheaves in the midst of the field, and behold, my sheaf rose up and stood, and your sheaves surrounded it and worshipped it. And his brethren said unto him, Shall you reign over us? Shall you rule over us? And they hated him yet more because of his dreams and because of his words. And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brethren. And he said, I have dreamed another dream. And behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down before me. And he told it to his father and his brothers. And his father rebuked him, and said to him, “What is the meaning of this dream that you have had? Shall I and your mother and your brothers come and worship before you on the earth? And his brethren envied him, but his father remembered these things.

After Joseph was sold as a slave in Egypt by his own brothers, when he arrived in Egypt, he was sold to the Potiphar (an important person in Egypt at that time), and the Potiphar gave him the responsibility of running his whole house (7). Sometime later, Joseph was able to explain (8) the Pharaoh’s dream and give directions (9), because he had already acquired the mastery of resource management, a skill he developed or even learned while managing Potiphar’s house. These skills thus enabled him to solve the problem of famine, which Egypt and its surrounding countries experienced for 7 years (10).

(7) Joseph found favor in the eyes of his master, who employed him in his service, established him in his house, and entrusted him with everything he owned.

(8) Thus, as I have just told Pharaoh, God has made known to Pharaoh what He is going to do. Behold, there will be seven years of great abundance throughout all the land of Egypt. Seven years of famine will come after them, and all this plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine will consume the land. And the famine that shall follow shall be so great that the abundance of the land shall not be seen any more.

(9) Now therefore let Pharaoh choose a man of understanding and wisdom, and put him in charge of the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh set commissioners over the land, to raise a fifth part of the crops of Egypt in the seven years of plenty. And let them gather all the increase of the good years that are to come, and let them gather together all the increase of the good years that are to come, and let them make heaps of grain, and store it in the cities, under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep it. And these provisions shall be for the land for the seven years of famine that shall come in the land of Egypt, that the land be not consumed by famine.

(10) And the seven years of abundance in the land of Egypt passed away. And the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had foretold. And there was a famine in every land, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. When all the land of Egypt was also hungry, the people cried out to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph, and do as he tells you. And there was a famine throughout all the land. And Joseph opened all the stores, and sold grain to the Egyptians. And the famine increased in the land of Egypt. And they came into Egypt out of all countries to buy grain from Joseph; for the famine was sore in all countries.

What is important to remember here is that the problems we face are just a preparation for us, to develop our potential, to arm ourselves, to equip ourselves for the problems we are called upon to solve. And we need the grace of God, so that we can obey His law.

In the next story, we will continue to deal with this subject.

Question of the week: What do you think your problem (the one you need to solve for us) is?

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May the Grace of God, help us to obey His Law.

Thank you for reading me :-)

Resources

(1) 1 Samuel 17:32

(2) Judges 6:13

(3) 1 Samuel 17:37

(4) 1 Samuel 17:34–36

(5) 1 Samuel 18:13

(6) Genesis 37:5–11

(7) Genesis 39:4

(8) Genesis 41:28–31

(9) Genesis 41:33–36

(10) Genesis 41: 53–57