What are You Doing?

Yesterday, I was reading in the book of Exodus about when Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, pays him a visit. After observing Moses and his interactions with the people throughout the day, Jethro asked Moses this question:

“What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?” Exodus 18:14

Moses responded, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will.” v.15

To which Jethro responded with a strong dose of fatherly wisdom that transformed the way Moses led God’s people,

“What you are doing is not good. 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.” v.17-18

Moses was wearing himself out. He had taken a burden of responsibility that God never intended for him to carry alone. How often do I find myself doing the same thing? Saying “yes” because I think if “I don’t, it won’t”.

While God won’t give us more than we can handle, sometimes we take on more than we should. The reality is that when I do that, I only enable other people. I rob them of the opportunity to serve, to lead, to grow and to learn something new.