Chapter 17 was one of my favorites even if it took me about a dozen times reading the title to understand what it means: Only Do What Only You Can Do. I have it down now.
Sometimes when I think back to the impressions that movies and books gave me about the Wild West, I think of men building houses for their family and living alone out in the middle of nowhere. In reality, this was a good way to get you and your family dead. Such a lifestyle makes one at little risk of catching COVID or something like it, but the risk is huge of dying from a bug bite, a scratch from a bush, a snake bite, an attack from a bear or puma, an encounter with a bobcat or a wolf pack, cuts from a coon or a porcupine, a flooding river, a fall down a hillside, freezing to death, starving to death, or an encounter with someone who would rather kill you than let you keep your stuff.
Thinking every man could build a house alone, hunt, protect the family, and the million other things it took to live off the land is “ludicrous” (little d’s new favorite word). I would have lasted about a week, at best a month. People moved out in groups and settled near each other for mutual aid and protection. Most any two men with a gun each can overcome a single man, especially one in an outhouse doing his business…cleaning up after the little ones. Groups had people who could fix wagon wheels, who could shoe a horse, who could fix tools, who could teach kids, who could tend to injuries and ailments. The idea is that it takes specialization to make it as no one person can do everything well.
Life takes experts (not “know-it-all”-s). I was hired as an expert witness once because I was one of the few people in the world who had actually done one particular aspect of engineering relevant to the issue at hand. It was not something that could not be figured out by many other structural engineers but figuring it out is different from having already figured it out and having done it successfully. I had classes on concrete structures, and I can understand them, but I have never designed one, and therefore cannot represent myself as someone who can, much less as an expert. There is a difference, and it has an impact.
One of the most beneficial aspects of life today is the advancements in technology. One of the worst things about living today is figuring out how to get your technology to keep working once something goes awry. I got a new phone about a week ago. It took me a week to realize that it was not making calls over the Wi-Fi like the old one it replaced. I tried to change a setting and it would not change. I am crazy as I kept doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result (because I did not want to call AT&T again to get a solution), and magically it worked after I do not know how many times. Using technology does not always take an expert but fixing an issue or improving the device in the first place most certainly does and getting it dumbed down enough for average people to use takes a “good” expert.
I just had one of those moments. I was marking the book for more to add to this piece and I came across a topic that did not really fit. I wanted to mark it in a way I could find it easily. I thought, a post it note would be great or one of those little flags. I have been using a baseball card to mark my place in the book, but it would not work for both. I kept going and ended the chapter intending to move and find something. (Yes, I was being too lazy to move the two feet to where I store the post it notes.) And surprise, surprise when I found the highlighter in my hand was one of those super functional ones that included a highlighter on one end, a pen on the other end, and … a stack of post it flags in the pocket clip. I am so observant. As my wife says, I would lose my head if it was not attached.
1 Cor 3:5 tells us “The Lord has assigned to each his task.” And the author says: “we will find liberating happiness doing our God-assigned tasks.” This morning when I wrote out my tasks, I had change the sheets and stretch on there. I prefer to stretch in the morning, and I have never been thrilled to change the sheets, but for some reason as I was able to make progress crossing them off the list, I felt happy and can identify with the liberating aspect he mentions. I do want to stretch every day but am interested in what other odd task becomes better by crossing it off tomorrow.
There is an old joke about how someone who is so far behind doing their God given tasks, they will never die. It is not actually true. God gives us opportunities, but if we do not complete them in a timely fashion, He passes the important tasks to others. One concept the author throws in is “not taking the opportunity to follow God from others”. He uses the phrase “I love you, so I am not going to assume any of the work entrusted to you.” My first thought is the dishwasher and how the girls seem to struggle to do their part, but sometimes it is bigger. I had the thought to lead another class next month at church, but the moving parts of our church do not always act in sync across the multiple campuses and multiple teams. As it turns out, I will lead a class after Spring break and that feels a lot better than if I had charged in to make it happen the way I thought it should.
As example of doing too much is given in Exodus 18 with Moses being the only judge for all the Jews wandering in the desert. It was too much for him and he could not see it. The author asks us to imagine God speaking directly to us with the words Moses heard from his father-in-law. “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.” Life is big with big opportunities and God is great and handle great things, but sometimes, He only asks you to do a little, and do it well.
God had prepared others to help Moses out and do what he could not. Moses need to handle the big things, but others could handle the little things. Moses could not do it all. In Acts 6 we are given the example of the apostles trying to care for everyone’s needs. Peter finally realized God needed them to preach the Word of God and not neglect doing so to wait tables. Waiting tables is important, especially for the widows and orphans who cannot do it themselves, but we are all gifted differently and need to use our gifts appropriately.
One aspect of Christ’s life the author shows us is that He did not stay around to preach to every person individually. He spoke to a few over the course of three years (relatively speaking) and left it to the church to reach everyone else. He delegated this work and prepared other people to fulfill the roles He left. I may be the best sheet changer in the world (figuratively), but God has called me to do more and I need to teach the girls to do it and then let them.
Jesus could not delegate His death on a cross. Only He could do that based on His sinless life. Jesus did what only Jesus could do. We need to take that on as our mission. Ask yourself what are the things that only you can do? Be a good wife or husband to our spouse. Be a good parent to our kids. Be a good grandparent, be a good grandchild, or fill a unique role in the life of someone special to you. Take care of your own soul and your own body in a way pleasing to God. Only you can do these things. They cannot be farmed out.
Other things can be farmed out. Ask yourself what can you “persuade, hire out, assign, delegate, or somehow shift to someone else.” Many people have yard people or cleaning people or pool people. Some people have employees or companies or kids to do things for them. If it does not have to be you, it does not have to be you.
Or ask yourself, “What can I leave undone altogether?” This is a big one. We must only tackle what God has assigned us. Being overloaded, burned out, broken down or anything like it are not valid reasons for some of the horrors on the news these days. People stretched to their ends taking it out on the innocent. Following Romans 12:18, the author asks us “If it is possible, as far as it depends on us, figure out what only you can do; then take everything else and” remove it.
God gave you strengths and passions. Use them, build on them, find the best way to use them and swim with the current. Be more selective, more thorough, more conscious of what you are trying to do. Make yourself a “Not to Do” list. As Mater once said in response to a question “To not to.” Eliminate the possible and focus on the necessary. Follow God and: “Only Do What Only You Can Do.”