“WINNING BY WITHDRAWING”
Rabbi Abraham said:
“I have learned a new form of service from the wars of Frederick, king of Prussia. It is not necessary to approach the enemy in order to attack him. In fleeing from him, it is possible to circumvent him as he advances, and fall on him from the rear until he is forced to surrender. What is needed is not to strike straight at Evil but to withdraw to the sources of divine power, and from there to circle around Evil, bend it, and transform it into its opposite.” (Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, volume 1, page 115)
Andy Stanley made a similar point in a podcast he calls, “You Might Also Like.” He says that you can’t overcome the temptation of greed by saying, “I’m not going to be greedy! I’m not going to be greedy!” Rather, we overcome greed by . . . Well, frankly, you need to listen to his podcast on You Tube.
I have tried too often frontal assaults on the evil that assaults me. How many times has that actually worked? I don’t know precisely, but I’m pretty sure it’s somewhere between zero and nil.
Do you remember an old cartoon strip called “Cathy”? Cathy was a single young lady who was always going on diets. In every frame of the cartoon segments that chronicled her diets, she gained weight. I can identify.
So, perhaps it would be good if we tried Rabbi Abraham’s approach and Andy Stanley’s approach. Perhaps we should withdraw to God. Maybe life wasn’t meant to be lived by ourselves.
Even if you don’t believe in God—and who of us really does believe in God all that much—you can act as if there is a God. Take the empirical approach. The Scripture says, “Taste and see that the LORD is good” (Psalm 34:8a)
What have got to lose? I mean, besides the chronic losses you suffer when you attack your problems head-on? Withdraw to the source of your strength, of all strength. Your attack might go much better when you have done that.
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