Delegate

"Now listen to me: I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You be the people’s representative before God, and you bring the disputes to God, then teach them the statutes and the laws, and make known to them the way in which they are to walk and the work they are to do. Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens. Let them judge the people at all times; and let it be that every major dispute they will bring to you, but every minor dispute they themselves will judge. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this thing and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace." -Exodus 18.19-23

Jethro advises Moses to let others help him. Moses is spending all of his time judging the people's disputes and trying to fit teaching them about God into that. But teaching people about God is his primary purpose. He is there to help them learn who God is and show them what His statutes are, so that they can live according to them, but if the people consume all of his time with their minor problems, he has little time and energy left to do what he is passionate about and gifted with. Jethro counsels him to delegate.

Men, we have to learn how to delegate. There are things that we are good at, things we care about, but if we let ourselves get wrapped up with all of the other things there is less time and energy to do those things. We must learn to delegate. I've mentioned the wise "old" Sage I meet with each month, years ago, when he was still in the role of King, I had the chance to intern under him, and during that summer he told me there are two kinds of leaders, farmers and ranchers. Farmers do everything for each cow in their herd, and therefore they are limited in the number of cows they can take care of, ranchers are different. Ranchers have ranch hands how work with the cattle. Each ranch hand is responsible for the care of a certain number of cows, and the rancher simple makes sure they have what they need to care for them, he works with the people who take care of the cattle, and his growth potential is limitless. Ranchers delegate.

When we delegate we free ourselves to focus on what we are called to do. Moses was called to teach the people God's statutes and laws, and teach them how to live before Him. In order to be able to do this he has to select other men who can judge the people and settle their disputes. Moses is still there to handle the big stuff, but he is free of the minor issues so that he can spend the majority of his time on what he's passionate about, and called to do. And by doing this, Moses doesn't get burned out and the people don't become stagnant because their leader is tied up with minor issues.

Let us learn to delegate so that we can free ourselves to focus most of our time on what we are most passionate about.

"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

To God alone be the Glory!

Strength and Honor