Alone

In Exodus 18:18, Moses is trying to take care of the entire house of Israel (all several thousand of them) and handle all their daily problems by himself. In response to this, his father-in-law gives Moses this little piece of advice:

18 Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.

I am sure we have all been on that project team or that committee where even though there are five other members all the work ends up on your shoulders. This is a necessary trial that we will have to face at times, but God did not intend for this life to be a solo activity. In fact, I think he made working together a commandment while describing the city of Zion on Moses 7:18:

18 And the Lord called his people ZION, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.

Being part of the community that Christ would have the world live in requires that we help others. While I was in Barcelona, Spain my husband and I went to church and I heard this story:

Once there was a hive of bees that was different than most hives. All the bees inside were lazy. They would buzz around sometimes or would start bickering with each other, but the thought never really crosses their mind that they should be working. You see, they did not have to because one little bee, who loved his brothers and sisters very much, did all the work. This bee knew that someone had to work to get food, and everyday he selflessly and quietly went about doing it.

One day, the bees noticed that there was not any food. They were confused and started arguing to figure out what happened. Then a shout was given, and all the bees turned to find the one hard working little bee almost dead from over work. Now these little bees were not mean, just lazy, and their little hearts swelled up at the thought of their brother dying to take care of them. So they all started working, knowing that they needed to in order to save their brother.

A miracle happened! With ALL the bees doing their part the work was done every day so quickly and was so much easier than the bees had thought it would be. The bickering in the hive almost entirely disappeared, the little hard working bee became healthy again and everyone was happy. The End.

We may say "why didn't the hard working bee ask for help?" Though that is a very good question, I think it is because the hard working bee had no evidence to believe that the other bees would help him. The question to ask ourselves is "what evidence am I giving others that if they need help they can ask me?" Merely saying "if you need some help be sure to call me!" will probably get results in 2 in 10 times. If you really want to follow what Christ taught about sharing the load, show by your actions and your attitude that helping out and doing your share does in fact matter to you.