FREEDOM TO WORK AND WORK IN FREEDOM (EXODUS 18)
Charles Schulz, the artist behind the comic strip Peanuts, in his book “I Take My Religion Seriously,” (p. 56) drew a strip of a boy wearing a long coat with pins and brooches cluttering the right side of the coat explaining his awards to an admirer staring in disbelief at his pins: “These are perfect attendance pins - Sunday School, Youth Fellowship, Youth leader training, men’s brotherhood, youth work night, men’s work night, youth missions, youth recreation, vacation school, Bible camp, youth Bible camp, city youth camp, country youth camp, state youth camp, international youth camp and choir practice.” Then he added, “I haven’t been home in three months!”
How often workaholics wish for 25 hours in a day or that they could manage with one less hour of sleep a day. Too often people are caught in the hustle and bustle of things, scrambling here and there morning till night, working so hard with so little to show.
Maybe you’ve heard yourself asking yourself these familiar questions: “Where did my time go?” “What have I accomplished today?” and “Why am I getting behind and not ahead as days go by?”
When Moses’ father-in-law, wife and children came to visit in the wilderness, they discovered Moses was in a management crisis. Why were free people forming an assembly line no different from slaves? How should the administration of the new government be different from the tyranny of Pharaoh? Something was practically wrong in the way he was managing his time, governing the people and handling his tasks.
What is the most effective use of our time then? How do people help themselves and others to manage their time better?
Engage Others and Eliminate the Exhaustion
13 The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. 14 When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “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?” 15 Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. 16 Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and laws.” 17 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. (Ex 18:13-19)
The fatigue that former Harvard University president Neil Rudenstine suffered when he was 59 in the mid-90s is a firm reminder of man’s limitations and frailties. For three years since he was the school’s president, he methodically raised a $1 million a day for a school that was already flushed with a $4 billion endowment, the largest of any private university in America.
Rudenstine was passionate about big and small things. Besides spending twelve hours a day on a demanding job, he fretted banquet menus, argued about his $10-15 medical co-payment and wrote notes to the football coach, Harvard Crimson editors, staff and dorm house masters.
One morning in November, he overslept, could not go to work and was diagnosed with “severe fatigue and exhaustion.” The directors insisted he took an indefinite leave of absence to recover from severe weariness from exertion. (Newsweek 3/6/95, U.S. News and World Report 12/12/94). The university president did not return, not for the next seven days or the next seven weeks, but the next seven months, until June the next year. He later revealed that he recuperated by listening to music, reading books and sunning in the Caribbean.
Moses’ crisis in his tenure came not long after he took the hot seat. It occurred before the Israelites’ arrival at Sinai in the third month after they left Egypt (19:1) – not even a quarter of a calendar year old. Organizing people was, doubtless, quite different from freeing them. Routine replaced drama. A fury in rescuing people was replaced by a fizzle in managing them. Things spun out of control very quickly, but the leader was the last person to recognize the signs of trouble.
The failure to engage others in service and ministry has disastrous consequences on the family, the group and the person. Moses could not shake himself off the job or the people that snaked around him from sunrise till sunset: “they stood around him from morning till evening” (18:13). He worked methodically and fixatedly like a single man on the job, but when his family arrived he had no time for them. His father-in-law brought his daughter and his grandkids but Moses could not even take an hour off to give them a guided tour of the area, to introduce them to others or to play with the kids.
The people were not served either. Not only did Moses disregard his family, the signs of the people’s disappointment, discouragement and discontentment were clear to Jethro: “You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out” (Ex 18:18). The Hebrew word for “wear out” shares same root word with the name of Abigail’s “foolish” husband, Nabal (1 Sam 25:25). The outcome of micro-management was futility and foolhardiness. In Moses’ case, working more was not doing more or succeeding much, but achieving less and going nowhere! The people, and not only Moses, will suffer the cost of solo management in no time. The people who needlessly stood in line would one day become impatient with waiting, discouraged with delay and unhappy with Moses.
Finally, the distress would be too distressful for Moses: “The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone” (18:18). The emotional, mental and physical toll would be unbearable for any single individual. Moses was like a candle that was burning others at one end and himself on the other. Herbert J. Freydenberger said that burnout is “a depletion of an individual’s resources, an attrition of his vitality, energy, and ability to perform.” (Quote from “Juggling Work and Rest” by Ruthann Ridley, Disc Journal Iss 23, ‘84).
Educate Others and Emphasize the Essentials
19 Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. 20 Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform. (Ex 18:19-21)
Ivy Lee, a management consultant, was called in by Charles Schwab, chairman of Bethlehem Steel Company, to advise him on how to better manage his time. Lee told him to write down every evening the six most important things he had to do the next day and to list them in the order of their importance.
Schwab asked Lee how much he wanted for this advice and Lee said, “Use the plan for several months and send me a check for how much you think it’s worth.”
Lee received $25,000 more than sixty years ago - a lot of money in those days - from Charles Schwab for a timely and profitable piece of advice. (Speaker’s Library of Business Stories, Anedectoes and Humor 357, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1990).
Jethro’s sound advice to Moses was to major in the essentials of the job. The essentials are the things that ought to be done that no one else can do that distinguishes you from others. Dawson Trotman, the founder of the Navigators, said: “Never do anything that someone else can or will do when there is so much to be done that others cannot or will not do.” What are our priorities? Someone suggested evaluating the significance and importance of things to do by using this question: “Will it really matter five years down the road?” (Bits and Pieces 7/22/93).
Are we doing things that are next, or things that are next-to-nothing? The first sounds urgent but the latter is important. Achieving more means saying “yes” to few things, “maybe” to some, and “no” to many.
Moses was the classic model of the efficient worker - doing things right, but not the effective worker - doing the right things.
Moses’ work was very specific. He was to teach them the word and teach them to live. As God’s representative, no one had more insight, knowledge and instruction on God’s word than Moses; so his first task was to teach God’s, specifically the decrees and laws (Ex 18:20). Instead of majoring on the minor, he was to major in the essentials or to wear one or two hats only. No doubt, no one was better suited than Moses in teaching the people about loving God, serving and worshipping Him.
The next task was to guide them in the way they walk, literally in Hebrew “show them the way to walk and the duties they are to perform.” Besides biblical content, Moses was to counsel them on the way to live their lives - their lifestyle or the practical life. Note that “the way to walk” (Ex 18:20) suggests the principles and guidelines of living, not the nuts and bolts. Moses’ time was better spent as a teacher than as a judge (Ex 18:13, 16) and in the classroom than in the courtroom. Judging causes headaches; teaching builds lives. Judging is punitive; teaching is preventive. Judging is technical, but teaching is theoretical. It was better for Moses to be involved in the people’s lives before than after a crisis arose. Teaching and training in righteousness is healthier than interrogating and investigating a transgression.
Empower Others and Expand Your Ministry
21 But select capable men from all the people--men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain--and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. 22 Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. (Ex 18:21-22)
Henry Ford, one of Time magazine’s top twenty builders and titans of the 20th century, gave us “affordable cars, introduced high wages, and helped create a middle class,” was a victim of his own success.
Ford was a failure at delegating. Time reported that for 19 years, from 1908-1927, he took over all decision making at Ford Motor Company, ignored calls to diversify, set spies to catch his managers that dared to make decisions on their own, turned on some of his best and brightest when they launched or designed something other than his beloved Model T, and chided customers for wanting a different color other than black. (Time 100: Builders and Titans, December 1998)
Some people find it hard to empower others. The problem of the will, the problem of the heart and the problem of lifestyle are preventing them from handing over the reins. Strong-will managers are ambitious people who will fight others every inch and every step of the way for control - like a game of chess -- to gain a psychological edge over them. On the other hand, leaders with weak hearts worry and keep looking over their shoulders and others’ shoulders because they suspect that others will not get a job done and that something bad might happen. The lifestyle manager, out of habit, is the obsessive-compulsive kind who is busy no matter what, the sort who cannot and will not stop and will probably work on vacation.
How do we empower others? Moses’ task was to select reverent, respectable and reliable leaders, people with a good devotional life, a good relational life and a good moral life, and to appoint them as rulers over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens (Ex 18:21).
These new leaders were to take over the responsibilities of judging from Moses. Sharing work also means sharing command. Not only were training and cases given to the new leaders, power, decision-making and recognition were afforded them. They could discuss with one another, use their common sense, go for further training or even ask Moses for advice.
The rookies were to handle most of the cases and bear the bulk of the responsibilities but were to leave the indispensable ones – the hardest of cases - to Moses (Ex 18:22). Even then, Jethro did not suggest Moses to “judge” them. The leaders were to “bring” them to Moses, but no reference was made to Moses about judging them.
Not only was Moses adding staff to his team and multiplying his resources, he was subtracting and dividing his workload and burden. The outcome of sharing work was help, health and harmony: “That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you” (18:22). Developing others for ministry is gain for everybody.
Conclusion: Are you so busy that you have crowded God, your family and others from your life? Is there direction in your life, meaning in your work and reason for your activities? Have you made time for ministry, leisure and evangelism? Have you had a sustained break? Do you take your work and work problems and frustrations home with you and take it out on family members and friends? Who do you have to challenge you intellectually, relationally and spiritually? Take time to enjoy your family, to smell the roses, groom other people, extend your reach and define your ministry.
Victor Yap
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