sometimes you have to say no

Exodus 18: 14-18

14When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, "What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?" 15And Moses said to his father-in-law, "Because the people come to me to inquire of God; 16 when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws." 17Moses' father-in-law said to him, "What you are doing is not good. 18You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone.


Jethro had already learned the important lesson in life. We cannot do everything, for everybody by ourselves. Moses was a great man, and God was with him, there is no doubt of that. However even great men have limits. Even great men can only give so much of themselves before there is nothing left to give. When we do not take time for ourselves, we as individuals suffer. Our relationships suffer; our personal relationship with the Lord suffers. I sum it up to say we cannot clearly hear the Lord whispering in our ear, if we are so busy telling everyone else what to do, that we do not take time to listen.

We have to learn to say no. Yes that even means sometimes we have to say no when we do not want to. That means the Church might have to find someone else to head up that next project, or your friend might need to find someone else to help them out this time. I am by no means saying that we should push away from our duties, but we do have to realize our own time constraints. When we try to do too much we become ineffective at most of what we are doing, and everyone suffers. We get so busy trying to do everything, that worst case nothing gets done correctly……or best case we skim over everything, and do not devote enough time to the important work that needs to be done.

This is the situation that Moses is in. He feels that he should be the one to handle everything. Since he is the one person everyone goes to for a ruling, the Israelites as a whole have to put all of their disagreements on hold until they can bring them before Moses. Not only is this quite a burden to place on one person, it is quite a burden to place on the people. They deserve better as does Moses. The wonderful idea that Jethro gives to Moses is an idea we can all use. Find people you can trust, and give them the smaller part of the responsibility.

We all know at least one person that cannot say no. If you do not know anyone like that…..well maybe you are that person! What we have to realize is that while the Lord has a plan for all of us, I can promise you, that the Lord does not expect you to accomplish his entire plan by yourself! We each have a part, and that is all we can do, when we see the need for more to be done, that is when we should be turning to our friends, and asking for help. When we find ourselves stretched too thin, that is when we should turn to the Lord, and ask for help…..and the strength to say no!

Peace,

Rev. Thetford