what you say here does relate to the little difficulty I am having with Hikaru further down this thread.
you say: "one pair of hands in action is worth a thousand pair of hands clasped in prayer."
and I think you are right,except of course, that human beings can make a terrible mess of trying to do good things. It does then depend on what that one pair of hands in action is actually doing, and why he is doing it.
Nevertheless, you are right, there is a clear command for us to act on God's behalf and it is our failure to do this which makes wars and hunger. But is it right that we expect God to sort things out for us when we are the ones he put here to do exactly that?
I once read a book by a Chinese clergyman called 'Four-mile-an-hour God'. He was saying that our main problem in not understanding God was that we expect Him to do things OUR way. To do things so that we can SEE they are being done. I wanted more than anything to see God PROVE himself and when I realised that He was never going to and gave up I finally caught a glimpse of how he DOES work. just a flash you understand, but enough to help me let go of my preconceptions even more.
There is a case to be said for sometimes not doing anything. We live in a frantically busy over-active and restless world. It's important to stop and do some quiet clasping as well. We are more likely to do good things when we are calm and attentive.