I’m old enough to remember the administrations of five U. S. presidents (I've lived through 8 of them; I only remember 5). Reagan was, of course, the oldest man ever elected to the Presidency. (He was just shy of 70 when he began his first term). Everyone knew he was old; he even promised not to use Mondale’s youth and inexperience against him. Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Obama, however, were not quite as old when they took office: Bush 41 was 64, Clinton was 46, Bush 43 was 54, and Obama was 47. Ok, so I know some history. What’s the point? Did you ever notice how much these men aged in office? Do an internet search—before and after—the office took a toll!
Moses knew something about the burden of leadership. “These aren’t my children,” he fairly shouts. “I didn’t conceive them, and I can’t be responsible for them. You do something with them!” You can understand the frustration: according Numbers 9, they were only about a year out of Egypt. So far, there had been griping about water and food (Exodus 15-16), cowardice at the foot of Sinai (Ex. 19), idolatry (Ex. 32), and the loss of two of the first five priests for writing their own rituals (Lev. 10). Add to that the daily burden of administering a truckload of people, and you have a leader who is heading for a breakdown.
This is not the first time Moses has flirted with burnout. At the start of this little adventure, Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, had told him that he needed help (Exodus 18:13-26), and it says that Moses set up a system to adjudicate cases. However, here, a little more than a year later, Moses needs the same advice. The Lord places His Spirit on 70 elders of Israel. It’s as if the Lord is saying, “Look, I placed you in charge, but you don’t have to do everything. I can give the gift of my Spirit to whomever I want.”
There’s lots to see here, and one of those things is that leaders too often carry their burdens all alone. Moses certainly did! He didn’t share his burdens with anyone else and He forgot that the burdens were already the Lord’s.
It’s not just leaders, either. Most of us forget that the burdens are the Lord’s: He is the one who has promised to work them all out for our good (Romans 8:28). Perhaps we should from Moses the importance of turning our troubles over to the Lord—especially those things that are simply beyond our control. And many of us don’t do a very good job of sharing our burdens with Christian friends. I don’t know quite where it came from, but American Christians at least sure seem to have bought into a myth of ultimate self-sufficiency. (I can’t tell you how many times over my ministry I’ve visited a sick person who’s having a hard time accepting help. They explain themselves with a shrug of the shoulders and the statement, “I’m the one who helps others; I guess I’m just not very good at taking help.”) What unnecessary burdens we bear!
Moses needed to learn to trust the Lord and to trust others to help him. Many of us could learn those same lessons—before we become like an American president, old and worn before our time!
--reposted from 2/15/2011
--reposted from 2/15/2011
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.