See & Cease
There's a time to delegate and there's a time to do.
For my wedding anniversary, my wife and I visited our apartment on campus of the university I attended when we were first married. While it seemed smaller than I remember, our family is definitely larger: 3 busy boys, 2 stressed parents, 1 seventy pound dog and a partridge in a pear tree (Ok, not the last part). While there, I was reminded of an incident that happened. I worked at a bookstore on the property at the time and it backed up to the housing complex. A lady came in to the store screaming that the apartment next door was on fire. Quickly, we dialed 911. While we were still on the phone, an employee named Mark grabbed a fire extinguisher, ran to the building, climbed to the second floor, kicked in a window and put out the fire before the fire department could even get there. He probably saved the family that lived there hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars worth of property.
As I thought about this experience, I considered a conversation Jesus had with the disciples.
Matthew 9:37-10:1
Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
I love the fact that Jesus asks the disciples to "ask" or pray about helping the hurting and then challenges them to be an answer to their own prayer. While it would be easy to delegate this responsibility to others, Jesus challenges them to do their part. See the problem, cease the problem.
While I was thinking about that I was reminded of an anonymous quote I read this week from the book, Barefoot Church;
“Sometimes I would like to ask God why He allows poverty, suffering, and injustice when He could do something about it. But, I’m afraid He would ask me the same question.”
Sometimes we want to delegate to God what he has already delegated to us. We would rather dial 911 and let someone else do the dirty work. But Jesus challenges us to hang up the phone, grab the fire extinguisher and put out some fires.
It's time to do more and delegate less.Save
