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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