Post from July 30, 2023

”👟 RSD 1188 ✅ Today’s Verse: “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 18:18 (mixing the 1’s and 8’s, and 1+1+8+8=18).

The Message translation (Exodus 18:17-23): “Moses’ father-in-law said, ‘This is no way to go about it. You’ll burn out, and the people right along with you. This is way too much for you—you can’t do this alone. Now listen to me. Let me tell you how to do this so that God will be in this with you. Be there for the people before God, but let the matters of concern be presented to God. Your job is to teach them the rules and instructions, to show them how to live, what to do. And then you need to keep a sharp eye out for competent men—men who fear God, men of integrity, men who are incorruptible—and appoint them as leaders over groups organized by the thousand, by the hundred, by fifty, and by ten. They’ll be responsible for the everyday work of judging among the people. They’ll bring the hard cases to you, but in the routine cases they’ll be the judges. They will share your load and that will make it easier for you. If you handle the work this way, you’ll have the strength to carry out whatever God commands you, and the people in their settings will flourish also.’”

Do you like history? I don’t mean bland facts that you circled “B” for on some test…plus just random, isolated facts leave a little bit to the truth as well. Those powdered wigs that were all the rage in the 1600s-1800s? Well, it wasn’t just for fashion, but that’s more of a topic for health class than history class 😉. Hey, the Spanish Influenza actually began in Kansas; newspapers in Spain were adamant about warning people of the disease so they could do their best to prepare. Haunted houses are found to have higher levels of carbon monoxide as well as other substances that cause hallucinations. There was a fictional novel called “Futility” (renamed “The Wreck of the Titan”) that was about the largest ship afloat, named “The Titan,” billed as “unsinkable,” that hit an iceberg in April in the Northern Atlantic, resulting in the ship’s sinking and catastrophic loss of life; this novel was published in 1898…14 years before the sinking of the Titanic. Although it used some Hollywood flair as far as numbers and such, “300” is actually based on the Battle of Thermopylae Pass, which, although the Greeks technically lost, proved a detriment for the Persian morale and unifying for the Greek city-states. Plus, one of the Greek words for “nightmare” is ephialtes, named after the Greek traitor who revealed to the Persians an alternate route to infiltrate Thermopylae. When Harvard University was founded in the 1600s, they didn’t offer Calculus…because Calculus had not yet been developed. In World War I, France built a fake Paris to throw off enemy bombers and fighter pilots. Also, in WWI there was something called “The Christmas Truce” where the soldiers from both sides held their fire and observed the holiday all together, even crossing the trenches as one humanity (even with some caroling) on the day of our Lord’s birth. You always wonder reading these stories how many people actually want war of any kind; I bet if we took some sort of worldwide poll, it would be an embarrassingly low percentage, decimal of a percentage, only embarrassing given how much we as a species seem to do it. Theodore Roosevelt’s father used to stay up night after night with him as a child because Teddy’s asthma was so bad. His father would also teach him boxing and other aerobic workouts to help his lungs (and with standing up for himself to bullies since he was more sickly than other children)—no wonder the guy could give a speech right after being shot. His father also taught him honesty, integrity, and the importance of serving. I love history—always have. How could you not? People’s stories are fascinating…or maybe I’m just nosy.

In your studies, do you remember reading of how difficult it was for people to set things up (you know, fairly…not the emperor takeover kind). New unions, new laws, new parties, new schools of thought, new economic systems, new businesses, new social systems, new governments. Think about it: even our Constitution needed a rewrite (with a way to do more rewrites (well, add-ons) without scrubbing the whole mission). The first election had the guy with the most votes being President and the second-most being Vice President—not really a sustainable system, but not a bad start. One thing that they had learned from the early Greeks and other emerging democratic/republic forms of government is the need for delegation. Washington understood this (I mean—you’ve seen “Hamilton”), and, as it turns out: it’s literally ancient advice. Some things are just on us while with other things we can entrust some responsibility to others as things get moving and expand, depending on the scope of the job. Today’s verse has some background in this effect, and it’s about Moses and some sage advice from a man named Jethro. Remember the parting of the Red Sea, the escape from Egypt? Right, they had done all of that pretty recently. The Israelites were figuring out how to self-govern. I mean—they wanted to get this whole freedom thing right. Well, Moses was the only guy who could really sit as a judge. He wasn’t a king (as they weren’t really in the market for that), and the elders had a lot of say in things too, but everyone knew that Moses knew what God wanted them to do (you know, since he’s the Deliverer the Lord had promised to lead them out of Egypt…and he did). So, the other leaders and elders did their best for day to day things, but for big questions about what God wants and disputes between the people, they’d go to Moses. Well, when you have that many people together, disputes are going to happen often, so Moses had very full days of hearing people out and advising them according to God’s laws and instructions.

The speaker in today’s verse is Jethro, Moses’s father-in-law who was also a priest. He’s basically telling Moses, “Hey, stuff is going to get bottle-necked, and you’re going to get burnt out. You need to teach some trusted people what to do.” Moses did have elders helping out, but they still had Moses as the only judge. There were potentially-capable people who hadn’t had the meetings with God (you’ve heard of the burning bush?) that Moses had but did do their best to follow the Jewish tradition and worship in a way that pleases God. Jethro and Moses both knew that they could find some guys who were upright, not power-hungry, honest, just wanting to serve God and their community, and who were teachable, not proud. The King James translation describes these men as, “able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness,” meaning that they have great respect for the mightiness of God and aren’t greedy nor apt to take advantage of others. You know, the kind of people who aren’t selfish, can’t be successfully bribed, and aren’t trying to attain some status by giving favors—the kind of people who should be judges. Jethro helps Moses line out how this is going to go (see The Message translation above), and ultimately it’ll involve teaching these men, deeply, all about God’s laws and instructions so they could also help to teach them to others and make judgments about things. Moses, of course, didn’t keep God’s instructions a secret, but he couldn’t teach all those people. He needed to train teachers who would also be judges for many things…really big things still went to Moses. God ended up also sending the Ten Commandments and other laws later in Exodus (Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy as well) to help the people understand what to do. Getting started in a new life away from Egypt was challenging, but well worth the effort and the learning.

You know, this advice Jethro gave Moses is kind of like school. Group projects and solo projects. Yeah, everything is supposedly easier as a group project, but those don’t develop the same characteristics as you would in a solo project (and you might not learn quite as much, depending on the project). Sometimes, also, two individually-written papers display more creative ideas than one paper written by two people, especially if the people aren’t well-paired. Sometimes you go it alone; some things are solo projects (really nothing is—we can pray for guidance, and God will help, but stick with me). Yeah, these can be daunting, but when you finish, it feels amazing. The grit, tenacity, strength, humility, faith, and understanding you’ve built through your trial and success are ineffable. There’s even this renewed confidence that you can do things. There’s a framed print that is on the front wall of the dance studio (where I grew up and now teach) just above the mirror (dance studios have giant mirrors used for staging and corrections). The sign is a Japanese proverb, and I think stumbling through an individual success is described pretty accurately in its words: “Fall seven times, stand up eight.”

Sometimes, though, someone holds our their hand to help us up. Some things are group projects. “Rome wasn’t built in a day”—yeah, and it wasn’t built by one dude, either. The Continental Congress—multiple guys. There’s even this thing in mathematical discovery called an Erdös number; it’s named for the mathematician Paul Erdös who coauthored with so many people that he became (arguably) the most prolific mathematician of the 20th century. It’s said that every published mathematician who has coauthored with another mathematician can be connected to Paul Erdös in just a few steps (their…wait for it…Erdös number). Think the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” for nerds. Mathematicians love to coauthor, but that requires a lot of individual preparation as well. You can’t coauthor with anyone without first spending many, many late nights and long days studying mathematics, asking questions to yourself, then to your professors (learning the basics), formulating your own theories, developing some kind of individual understanding…again, spending time in your professor’s office hours. When it comes to the research, it’s just you and your coauthor, so the “known” things need to be pretty solid. Hey, being a good teammate requires a lot of individual prep. Scientists studying a lot and performing experiments. Sports figures going to the batting cages. Comedy writers trying out jokes and thinking up storylines. Your coworker taking one for the team and going to an extra training to gain some insight regarding changes in your industry. Moses going to God in prayer. Jesus going to God in prayer. Every stand-up individual in the Bible going to God in prayer. Maybe our individual quests aren’t so individual after-all, even the ones that are.

Life is a balance of group and individual projects (maybe the school system was onto something after all 😉). That saying that “God never gives you more than you can handle”—I don’t know where they got that. Of course He does—that’s how we grow in our character, in our faith, and in our trust in Him. It’s not that we can’t handle it—it’s that we can’t handle it without God. Or, it’ll sort of turn out but be a hot mess, and we’d eventually realize we need God. Sometimes God comes through in developing our strength and tenacity, helping us to “do it ourselves.” Sometimes God comes through in the form of a trusted family member, friend, or colleague. You know, you get the stomach flu and a friend brings you some Powerade and some soup because you’re too weak to cook. And, hey, we can be willing to be that friend for someone else. Maybe your friend rides the “E” like it’s an Olympic sport and needs to be picked up one day when they get cut in the prelims (to extend the Olympics simile) and run out of gas. Then, maybe they’ll be the person who pays for the person behind them at Starbucks (and that person was feeling really down and could benefit from just feeling special for a minute). Our kindness could be the sign that someone else is looking for, praying for, even if it’s just a small sign that they are seen and that, with that in mind, everything’s going to be ok. “We are the hands and feet of God.” Aren’t we all better for serving each other? “All of us are better when we’re loved” — Alistair Macleod.

So, how do we know what the group projects are? Technically, all of our individual projects are part of one group project. But, as for if you’re to continue on or find help…human help, here’s one way: if things are a lot, ask God for help. He’ll either give you what you need within yourself (and some of His perfect peace), or He’ll send someone trustworthy to you, upright, the kind of person where you can just feel the love coming off of them. When “the work is too heavy for you,” sometimes you develop muscle, and sometimes a friend arrives to help you carry it. You know, in thinking back on school (college), even when we’re on our own in a class (no study group), we can always go to the professor during office hours. Maybe one of the things we can take away from college is that in the great study of life, even when it seems we’re on our own with no study group, we can always go to the Professor…and His office hours encompass the totality of space and time…and beyond.”