Moses' father-in-law replied, '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.' (NIV) — Exodus 18:17-18
There's something quietly stubborn in most of us that resists asking for help. We'll carry more than we should, stay later than we need to, and quietly convince ourselves that this is just what faithfulness looks like. But this passage from Exodus tells a different story.
Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, arrives at camp and watches Moses work from sunup to sundown. People are lined up waiting for his counsel, and Moses is handling every single case himself. And here's what's remarkable: Moses wasn't being lazy or careless. He was genuinely trying to serve. He tells Jethro the people come to him to seek God's will. His heart was right. His method was unsustainable.
Jethro doesn't just identify the problem, he names why it matters. The people around Moses will also wear out waiting. Isolation in leadership, in caregiving, in any calling really, doesn't just affect the person carrying the weight. It affects everyone depending on them.
What Jethro offers Moses is one of the most underappreciated gifts in scripture: honest, practical wisdom from someone who loves you and sees what you can't.
We sometimes treat needing help as a spiritual failure. But Moses, the man who spoke face to face with God, needed someone to tell him he couldn't do it alone. And he listened. That took just as much courage as anything else he ever did.
Who in your life might be offering you the same gift right now? The wisdom you need may already be sitting right across from you.
🙏 A Prayer for Today
Lord, forgive us for the pride that disguises itself as dedication. Thank you for placing people in our lives who can see what we cannot see about ourselves. Give us the humility to receive their wisdom, the courage to let others carry some of the load, and the grace to recognize that asking for help is not weakness but trust. Teach us to build the kind of community where no one has to carry everything alone. Amen.
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