The Courage to Ask for Help

There's something quietly heroic about trying to handle everything yourself. And there's something quietly destructive about it, too.

Moses was one of the most gifted leaders in all of scripture, and yet here he is, sitting from morning to evening listening to every dispute, every problem, every need among two million people. Nobody told him he had to do it this way. He just did, because he cared and because he could. And his father-in-law Jethro watched for a while, then said something remarkably simple: this is going to break you.

What's easy to miss is that this exchange isn't a rebuke. Jethro isn't angry or disappointed. He's concerned. He loves Moses, and he loves the people Moses is serving. And he sees, from the outside, what Moses can't see from the inside: that doing everything alone isn't faithfulness. It's unsustainability dressed up as dedication.

God's design for human beings has always included other people. Not as a backup plan, but as part of the original blueprint. We are built for collaboration, for shared weight, for the kind of community where one person's strength covers another person's limit.

You might be in a season where asking for help feels like admitting failure. It doesn't. Jethro's advice changed everything for Moses, and the people got better care because of it, not worse.

Who in your life is your Jethro? And are you letting them speak?