Life has no remote. Get up and change it yourself!
Wise advice, my friends. Hopefully, we will have the fortitude to apply that advice in our own lives as well.
I was conversing recently with one of our members who bemoaned the challenges he faced in so many different areas of his life. From financial pressures, to family tensions, his outlook was one of abject defeatism.
I can't make it Rabbi, I am finding it impossible to continue like this.
Listen, it's not a challenge that is unique to this gentleman. In life we all face obstacles in our quest for a better life. But our attidudes must reflect our commitment to "get up and change it ourselves" as well as complete focus on trying to find the best way forward.
Take a look at this week's Torah portion which details the story of the spies (or "scouts", really) who visited the land of Israel, to "check it out" while the Jewish people were travelling in the desert. As we know, 10 of the 12 spies returned with very negative reports about the land; and we know that in their pessimistic (and misguided) reports, they said that the Promised Land would pose an impossible conquest for the Jewish nation.
As a result, the Jewish people gave up any hope that they would ever enter the land and were therefore condemned to wander for 40 years in the wilderness, -- and it was their offspring who ultimately merited to enter the promised land.
What exactly was their sin that they were so condemned to punishment? After all, they spoke the truth as they saw it; was this not their mission statement? (to "report the facts"?!?)
The answer lies in their conclusion that the spies added that the people had no chance of being able to enter and settle in Israel. This was not something they were asked to do. Expressing the challenges is fine. Drawing a conclusion and refusing to execute the mission, is not.
So too it is in the present; we must never waver lose heart from challenging circumstances. Sure, go ahead, and "scout the landscape" to find the best way forward.
But never give up hope. For this is a recipe for failure, both on a personal level, and on a communal level.