Take a Chill Pill

I don’t know about you, but when I am given a responsibility I give it 200% and am never satisfied until the job is done. As president of FCA I give it my all, I don’t just want to have a good club on campus, I want it to be a great club. I dream big; of charity events and community service, a room packed with student athletes who want to grow closer to God… However I find that I bump against my limit more often than I care to. It’s tough when you realize there is only so much you can do, that there is a line that separates what is possible and what can be your undoing.

I like to think I’m in a similar situation to Moses, albeit on a much smaller scale. Moses was just a regular Joe, nothing qualified him for his job other than the all important fact that God called him. It was God the whole time, Moses just went for the ride. Yet Moses had a great deal of responsibility too; he was the main contact to God and it was his job to lead the Israelites through the desert to wherever God was leading them. The problem is that he tried to do it all on his own, and was reminded of that fact by his father in law Jethro.

Moses meets Jethro shortly after they flee Egypt, Jethro must be impressed—his daughter did marry a revolutionary leader and man of God after all. Yet Jethro was not about to let Moses think he knew everything, Moses was still a young man on his walk with God and he had a lot to learn. Moses proudly went to Jethro claiming he was the sole contact to God and that all disputes were heard by him. Jethro spared few words in his response.

“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.” Exodus 18:17.

That’s a tough message to swallow isn’t it? It’s hard for me, that is for sure. I like to think I can be superman and do everything, but I can’t. Being a leader in any form requires a lot of responsibility and part of being responsible is knowing where your limits begin and when to ask for help. Do you burden yourself? Do you heap all kinds of stress and responsibility on yourself? Well don’t, ask for help, give the job to someone else. Sure you may not get all the credit, but you will get the job done and save yourself a lot of pain.