This last week, I came across some notes supposedly found on hospital charts, and I thought you might enjoy them as I did:
• The patient refused autopsy.
• Note: Patient recovering from forehead cut. Patient became very angry when given an enema by mistake.
• Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.
• On the second day, the knee was better, and on the third day it disappeared.
• The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.
• She is numb from her toes down.
• While in ER, she was examined, x-rated, and sent home.
• Patient was alert and unresponsive.
• I saw your patient today, who is still under our car for physical therapy.
• The lab test indicated abnormal lover function.
• Skin: Somewhat pale but present.
• Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities. (Marshall Shelley, www.PreachingToday.com)
No doubt, these were probably written by some sleepy intern or frazzled nurse. But that describes most people in our society today – underpaid, overworked and weary. Perhaps, it describes you these days.
It certainly described Moses in the days after God used him to free the Israelites from Egypt. He was leading 2 to 3 million people across the wilderness, putting up with their constant grumbling, and trying to settle their many disputes. It was wearing him down, but even he found some relief in the company of an old friend, his father-in-law, who gave him some good advice.
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Exodus 18, Exodus 18, where we discover God’s cure for our weariness in the advice of Moses’ father-in-law.
Exodus 18:1-5 Now Jethro, the priest of Midian and father-in-law of Moses, heard of everything God had done for Moses and for his people Israel, and how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. After Moses had sent away his wife Zipporah, his father-in-law Jethro received her and her two sons. One son was named Gershom, for Moses said, “I have become an alien in a foreign land”; and the other was named Eliezer, for he said, “My father’s God was my helper; he saved me from the sword of Pharaoh.” Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, together with Moses’ sons and wife, came to him in the desert, where he was camped near the mountain of God (NIV) – that’s Mount Sinai.
Exodus 18:6-7 Jethro had sent word to him, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons.” So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. They greeted each other and then went into the tent. (NIV)
Moses had lived 40 years with his father-in-law before he went back to Egypt. Now, after the stress of dealing with Pharaoh, the grumbling of 2 to 3 million Israelites, and an attack by the Amalekites, it must have felt good to be home again with his family.
Exodus 18:8 Moses told his father-in-law about everything the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake and about all the hardships they had met along the way and how the Lord had saved them. (NIV)
Moses gave God the glory for all that was done! Moses didn’t brag about what he had done. Instead, he bragged about what GOD had done.
Exodus 18:9-11 Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the Lord had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians. He said, “Praise be to the Lord, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly.” (NIV)
Because Moses gave God the praise, his father-in-law became a believer in Israel’s God, YHWH. Verse 1 says, “He was THE priest of Midian” – i.e., the CHIEF priest of a pagan religion. Now, he worships YHWH because of Moses’ witness.
Exodus 18:12 Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law in the presence of God. (NIV)
In-laws, family members, and all the leaders of Israel rejoiced together over what God had done. This was a praise party, which I’m sure went a long way towards relieving the weariness in Moses’ own soul.
Moses gave praise to God, and that’s what we must do if we want to relieve the weariness in our own souls.
GIVE GOD THE PRAISE.
Assign God the glory. Give God the credit for all your accomplishments. 1st of all, praise is refreshing to the soul. Nehemiah 8:10 says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” But even more so, praise helps us realize who’s really in control. When we begin to think that it is all up to us, life’s responsibilities can be overwhelming. But when we realize that GOD is the one in charge, then that takes the pressure off.
All we have to do is remain faithful to Him, and let Him take care of the results. We don’t have to force people to respond in a certain way. We just do what God tells us to do and let HIM deal with the people in our lives – our children, our mates, or others. Let HIM deal with the outcomes. Giving praise to God gets your perspective right, and that goes a long way towards taking the pressure off.
Tim Keller, a pastor in Manhattan, New York, said that in 1970 a Sunday school teacher changed his life with a simple illustration.
The teacher said, “Let's assume the distance between the earth and the sun (92 million miles) was reduced to the thickness of this sheet of paper. If that is the case, then the distance between the earth and the nearest star would be a stack of papers 70 feet high. And the diameter of the galaxy would be a stack of papers 310 miles high.”
Then Keller's teacher added, “The galaxy is just a speck of dust in the universe, yet Jesus holds the universe together by the word of his power.”
Finally, the teacher asked her students, “Now, is this the kind of person you ask into your life to be your assistant?” (Timothy Keller, from the sermon The Gospel and Your Self; www.PreachingToday.com)
No! You ask Him to be in charge. Why would we in our puny strength want to run the show when we know Someone who has unlimited power? Let HIM run the show! Let God run your life. Then you will be able to enjoy it a whole lot more.
Once, Jesus was speaking to a group of people, whose religious leaders had brainwashed them into thinking that their success in this life and the next was all up to them. Their leaders had given them hundreds of rules to follow as the only way to find prosperity and God’s blessing. But those rules became a burden as people found themselves unable to put them into practice.
It is to these people, and to you and me, that Jesus says, “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
Unlike the religious leaders who weighed their followers down with a lot of rules, Jesus says, “I won’t do that to you.”
You see, when Jesus spoke these words, oxen worked in teams. Sometimes an older, more mature ox would share the yoke with a younger ox. In that case, the yoke was designed for the more mature ox to bear the load with the younger ox just getting a feel for something around its neck. The younger ox did not bear the load at all. It just walked alongside the older ox so it could learn how to be useful in the farmer’s field.
Well, that’s the picture Jesus gives us of our relationship with Him. He shares the other side of the yoke, bearing its load. All we need to do is walk alongside Him as we learn how to be useful in God’s field.
When Jesus hung on the cross, He cried out, “It is finished!” Jesus did all the work. All that remains for us to do is depend on Him. You see, not only our salvation, but our success in this life is all up to Him.
I like the way Dane Ortlund put it in his book, Defiant Grace. Ortlund says, “Christianity is the unreligion. It turns all our religious instincts on their heads… The ancient Greeks told us to be moderate by knowing our inclinations. The Romans told us to be strong by ordering our lives. Buddhism tells us to be disillusioned by annihilating our consciousness. Hinduism tells us to be absorbed by merging our souls. Islam tells us to be submissive by subjecting our wills. Agnosticism tells us to be at peace by ignoring our doubts. Moralism tells us to be good by discharging our obligations. Only the gospel tells us to be free by acknowledging our failure. Christianity is the unreligion because it is the one faith whose founder tells us to bring not our doing, but our need.” (Dane Ortlund, Defiant Grace, EP Books, 2011, p. 38; www.PreachingToday.com)
If you want relief from your own weariness, don’t bring your doing to God; bring your need and give Him the praise for all that is done. Give God the praise. Then…
GIVE OTHERS THE POWER.
Share the load with qualified people if you want relief. Delegate authority, along with responsibility, to the right people. Relinquish control to capable individuals. That’s a lesson Moses had to learn before he could gain any relief from his weariness.
Exodus 18:13-16 The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. 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?” Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. 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.” (NIV)
Moses was settling all the disputes among 2 to 3 million people! Sure, he used it as a way to teach them God’s law, but he was wearing himself out.
Exodus 18:17-18 Moses’ father-in-law replied, “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. (NIV)
The job is too big for any one person. And by doing it all by himself, Moses succeeded not only in wearing himself out; he was wearing all the people out as well.
The word in the Hebrew is a very interesting word. The word translated “wear out” literally means “to fade away” (Keil-Delitzch), “to be withered with exhaustion,” “to sink or drop down, languish, wither and fall” (Chuck Swindoll, Moses, p.253). What a vivid picture of what was going on here! Moses was fading away, withering with exhaustion, and the people too were withering away as they waited in the hot sun all day. So Jethro says to Moses…
Exodus 18:19-20 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. Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform. (NIV)
Teach them as a group, not individually.
Exodus 18:21-23 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. 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. If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.” (NIV)
Relieve yourself and satisfy all the people by sharing the load with capable men.
Exodus 18:24-26 Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves. (NIV)
They didn’t have to run it by Moses first. They decided the simple cases all by themselves, leaving only a few difficult cases for Moses to resolve. You see, Moses had given them not only the responsibility, but the authority to judge the people as well.
Moses relinquished control to capable people, and that’s what we must learn to do if we want relief from our own weariness. Turn people loose to do the work without micromanaging their efforts or looking over their shoulder all the time.
You do what only you can do. Let others do all the rest. As the workload increases, don’t work harder; work smarter. Don’t get busier; get more effective by asking for help.
Chuck Swindoll says, “It is no sign of spirituality that you work fifteen to eighteen hours a day, seven days a week, and never take a vacation… It is no sign of spirituality that you groan your way through life, looking humble and wanting everybody to be impressed with your rundown, overworked, underpaid, haggard appearance. Get a life!” (Chuck Swindoll, Moses, p.259).
Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).
Busyness is no sign of spirituality or any kind of a full life. In fact, it’s more likely the sign of an empty life.
Tim Kreider, in an article he wrote for The New York Times called The Busy Trap put it this way: “If you live in America in the 21st century, you've probably had to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they are. It's become the default response when you ask anyone how they're doing: ‘Busy!’ ‘So busy.’ ‘Crazy busy.’ It is, pretty obviously, a boast disguised as a complaint. And the stock response is a kind of congratulation: ‘That's a good problem to have,’ or ‘Better than the opposite.’”
Then Kreider goes on to say, “Busyness serves as a kind of … hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day …. [We're] busy because of [our] own ambition or drive or anxiety, because [we're] addicted to busyness and dread what [we] might have to face in its absence.” (Tim Kreider, “The Busy Trap,” The New York Times, 6-30-12; www.PreachingToday.com)
My dear friends, when life seems overwhelming, don’t get busy; get help! Otherwise, you’ll just wear yourself out and those around you.
That’s what Bob Merritt, pastor of the Eagle Brook Church in Minnesota, was doing. In a recent issue of Leadership Journal he writes about what he called his “ministry meltdown.” Merritt felt overworked and overwhelmed, and the cracks started showing up in harsh comments and bursts of anger towards his family and his staff. Emotionally, he felt depleted and afraid, but he didn't have the time or energy to address the issues that were bubbling under the surface of his life.
Finally, Merritt’s leadership team forced him to look under the surface by entering a year-long intervention with a leadership coach named Fred. Merritt writes:
“Fred and his assistant interviewed all my family members, most of my staff, and all of my closest friends with a series of 60 questions that essentially asked, ‘What's good about Bob, and what's bad about Bob?’ The candid responses were recorded in a 200-page document that Fred and his assistant read back to me, word for word, during a two-day intervention.
“For two solid days,” Merritt says, “I sat and listened while Fred read statements like: ‘Bob overlooks relationships and lacks interpersonal skills in working with people.’ ‘Bob doesn't listen well.’ ‘Bob doesn't manage his staff. There's no love. He's unapproachable.’ ‘Bob speaks before he thinks.’ ‘Bob has a love problem.’ ‘I know that Bob cares, but he's not gifted in showing it.’
“What really nailed me was when I heard these words from my son, David: ‘My dad is angry a lot.’” Merrit says, “When Fred read those words to me, he looked up from the page and just let them sink into my soul. I had to look away… Never in my life had I become so convicted over how flawed I had become.
“It broke me,” Merritt says. “And it was the beginning of my new life.”
When Merritt first started seeing Fred, he told Fred that he was afraid he might not be able to change. Fred has seen hundreds of CEO types, and he says the success rate is around 40 percent. The other 60 percent continue to stumble and often end up losing their jobs and families. He said the difference is humility. Those who turn the corner and take their leadership and lives to a new level are those who are humble enough to receive feedback and take it seriously.
“So if you're worn out or confused,” Merritt concludes. “If you're afraid and somewhat paranoid about what others are saying or thinking about you; if you're angry, feeling alone, and misunderstood, I urge you to ask this vital question: Am I humble enough to address the cracks?” (Bob Merritt, "Ministry Meltdown," Leadership Journal, Winter 2012; www.PreachingToday.com)
My dear friends, if you want relief from your weariness, then you must be humble enough to address the cracks. Don’t get busy; get help! Get help, first of all, from Jesus Himself, then from those He has placed in your life.
Give God the praise, and give others the power. That’s God’s cure for weariness.
Jesus, I am resting, resting
In the joy of what Thou art;
I am finding out the greatness
Of Thy loving heart.
Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee,
And Thy beauty fills my soul,
For by Thy transforming power,
Thou hast made me whole. (Jean S. Pigott)
