"You hit singles, you hit doubles, every once in a while you may hit a home run."  So said U.S. president Barack Obama recently when talking about his work in international relations.  The president was speaking to his critics who have been insisting that he should have been using, for the last six years, more force to enforce and ensure America's interests around the globe.  Better to employ diplomacy to the extent we can, the president was arguing, than drag the nation into another war.  And every once in while the country will hit a home run.  Every once in a while the nation will fully succeed in its quest to preserve its international interests--without resorting to war.
     We can surely argue for hours whether Obama's approach is working.  My point, however, is to consider the words of James who, in the first chapter of his letter, writes that, "Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger."  We can certainly employ this in our personal relationships, but we can also do so in international relationships.  In truth, we are usually better off to refrain from speaking or acting in a volatile situation, rather than run the risk of further inflaming it.  In the big picture, we ought to move slowly, trusting in the greater activity of God in the world, and be aware that we tend to think in very small and limited ways, ways that are rather myopic and often fail to see the larger issues at hand.
     Maybe that's why the Hebrew Bible says, in Deuteronomy 29:29, that, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God."  Not to reject action altogether, just to say that, given our very tiny vision, we ought to realize that despite our confidence in ourselves, we very rarely understand everything we should.