Monday Morning Meditation #11: Our Need for Others

I made it this week into the next chapter of Exodus, chapter 18. Compared to the previous three chapters, how enlightened the key players in this chapter are! Moses has now set himself up as a judge for the people, interpreting God's laws for them. Moses's father-in-law, Jethro, comes to Moses, learns what he is doing and how overworked he is, and makes a wise suggestion. He recommends to Moses that he find a number of wise, honest, God-fearing men and let them handle the smaller matters while he (Moses) takes on just the complicated cases, the ones that he might need to take to God for guidance.

Reading: Exodus 18

Meditation: I could not help but apply this situation to my own life many centuries later. So much is parallel. So little has changed through the ages. My first thought always used to be to try to do everything myself and, like Moses, become overworked, tired, and, in my case, less effective than I could have been.

It has taken much time and experience for me to learn to accomplish my work tasks through others, and indeed, I have been very fortunate, in finding experienced, capable, and loyal junior managers to help me at work. (I am not so sure that it is only good fortune for ALL of my current junior managers are believers -- mostly Catholic, some other Christian denominations, two Muslims, and one Jew. There are no atheists or agnostics among them. I do not believe that this combination would have happened without the hand of God leading the right applicants to my door.) Having such junior managers means that I do have to accept things that might be done differently than I would have done them myself and perhaps even less well than I think I might have been able to do them in the case of junior managers who are still learning the ropes. Far more important, however, having a team of people who live to honor God means that employees are treated in more humane ways than they otherwise might be, that these managers let God's direction lead them in helping employees, that employees are not reluctant to pray for each other, and that people love coming to work because even those individuals perceived as difficult people know that they will usually find love and support there.

Letting others help with my private life has come with a bit more difficulty. Most of my life, I have been a tiger, fighting for survival because I had to as a child, dealing with physical, sexual, and emotional abuse heaped upon me by adult relatives, watching my brother be stabbed, being forced to observe my pet cat being burned alive, and so forth. Cruelty unimaginable to most accompanied me all the days of my youth. So, I became a tiger. I survived.

Then, when my children introduced me to their giftedness, physical handicaps, and mental disabilities and I found not only immense lacks in the system to help them but also some strategically placed professionals who acted as obstacles to their well being, I became like a tiger with cubs: truly vicious at times. I cringe at some of the memories.

It has only been after getting to know God and trying to follow the path He has sent me down and understanding that it was He who led me out of the jungle that I have learned to relax, let Him lead, and, very important, allow, yea, even ask, others to help. What a difference that has made! I feel like I can calmly walk through the valley of the shadow of death, climb any mountain, and walk through any fire for He is with me every step of the way. Nothing else matters. I will probably always have that tiger spirit somewhere in me, but now it obeys the Lord. I guess it would not be unlike the wolf calming down and eating from the hand of St. Francis. My tiger lives, but it is meek for that is how God wants it to be.

And that is far as I can go with you on this Monday morning. I must retire to prayer to ask God to keep my tiger spirit meek and obedient, to express my regret for times in the past when I have roared and deliberately frightened others, to give thanks for God's great kindness in caring enough about me to tame my spirit, and to offer praise for the the many ways in which He protects me and mine every day so that I no longer feel the need for self-defense.

After that, I will spend some time in contemplation, hoping and trusting that this great God will continue to abide with and in me, keeping my tiger at peace.

I will now leave you to your prayer and contemplation, but first, I would like to bring to your attention a Monday morning prayer post that you might enjoy:

Fr. Austin Fleming, priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and pastor in Concord, Massachusetts, posts a prayer each Monday morning that he calls "Monday Morning Offering." I enjoy his prayers very much. I hope you also will find them inspirational. He has graciously given me permission to include a link to his blog on my Monday Morning Meditation.

Have a good day and a spirit-filled week, and may you find helpers for all your needs. (If I can be one, please let me know!)

If you pick this up as a weekly devotional activity, please share with me and others your own thoughts about the message of Exodus 18 or any other scripture that you choose for meditation. Feel free to export the image of the mission church; maybe some time in the near future my Internet-inept self will be able to figure out how to use the Mr. Linky buttons, but to date I remain incompetent at the more sophisticated blog stuff. In the interim, you are welcome to use the image and share the meme of Monday Morning Meditation for starting out the work week closer to God.