SCRIPTURE:
“At that time I said to you, "You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone. The LORD your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as many as the stars in the sky. May the LORD, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised! But how can I bear your problems and your burdens and your disputes all by myself? Choose some wise, understanding and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will set them over you."
Deuteronomy 2:9-13
OBSERVATION:
Moses knew and understood that as the Israelites grew in number, leadership would also need to grow in order that the people would be led appropriately and effectively with solutions and resolutions to challenges that arise. There is a saying that in dealing with people, “it’s not 'if' but 'when' and how often will leaders be bridled with having to handle concerns and challenges from those that they lead.” Moses’ solution was not to hope God would limit the growth by evaluating how much he or leadership could handle; but instead asking the Lord to willfully increase their population with the intent that the leaders would work toward increasing their recruitment and training of potential and future leaders. Thus, the lesson here is to allow God in faith to meet their needs with “potential” rather then limit growth by limitation and mandates.
APPLICATION:
My propensity is sometimes to take matters into my own hands as I feel that there should be a certain way to achieve something, and that if I do it myself, it will turn out just the way I want it to be. It is often so easy for me to consume myself with tasks that could easily be delegated. However, I am reminded that the key to not falling into this micro-managing syndrome is to find leaders, train them, build teams, and empower team members to help in lightening and carrying the workload. One of the benefits of finding and training leaders is that we then become intent on working ourselves out of a position, which should be all of our goals. Thus, resulting in what business experts call a “succession plan” to carry on the organization and vision far beyond the current generation of leadership. It goes back to the 95% that others can assist with and the 5% that I must do. I know that I often increase my 5% to quite a bit more in my daily endeavors, which is not productive and not healthy. It is very clear that a good and wise leader does in fact learn to, seek to, recruit and train leaders with the intent on building teams so that they are able to focus on their calling and purpose, which results in a better organizational balance and potentially more qualitative results.
PRAYER:
Lord help me not to be a micro-manager or hoarder of responsibility and task; but rather to learn and remember to do life, ministry, and family as a team.
