Monday, April 4, 2016

Sharing the Load

For our discussion tomorrow, let's look at Exodus 18:17-18

Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.

Things to think about:

   the background is Israel has left Egypt and they are now in the desert 
   The "government" has formed with Moses as the leader of the nation and the people come to him everyday to get him to settle their disputes
                     Jethro, his father-in-law, sees that he is working from morning until evening, wearing himself out as the sole judge
                     Jethro could have used Moses' position of authority to enhance his own social position - "Have you seen my son-in-law? He's the man!"
   Moses was fortunate because someone cared enough about him to tell him the unvarnished truth - "what you are doing is not good"
                     have you been on the sending or receiving end of a message like this recently?
                     how did it go?
                     later, we also see that Jethro did more than identify a problem. Importantly, he also offered a viable solution.
                     let's be the kind of friends who come with help not just criticism
   Like many of us, Moses perhaps felt that what he was doing was indispensable and no one else could really do the job quite as well as him
                     do you struggle with delegation?
                     do you have trouble asking for help?
                     and, like many of us, we learned through a restructuring or other change that maybe someone else can do my job or at least the company didn't immediately fail when I left
   As we have said on a number of occasions, God designed life to be a team sport
                     are you in place where the "work is too heavy for you, you cannot handle it alone"?
                     How can we help?


Looking forward to seeing everyone in the morning!

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