I Can’t Do It All!!!!

Of course you can’t and neither can I. Why do we think we can or even should? Being the Type A, control freak that I am, I certainly have tried to do it all over the years. Rarely was I able to for any sustained period of time.

Guess what? God never meant for us to be superwomen and do it all.

How do I know? Joshua told me so.

In the book of Joshua (one of my favorites, by the way), Joshua has taken the reins of leading the Israelites. In chapters 1-12, we find the details of many of Joshua’s conquests in the Promised Land. Joshua 11: 23 tells us that “Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had said to Moses; and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel.”

Immediately Joshua 13 opens with these words, “Now Joshua was old, advanced in years. And the Lord said to him: ‘You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed.”

Joshua could not, nor did the Lord expect him to, conquer every last square inch of real estate in the Promised Land. Joshua’s mission was to conquer key parts of the land, divide the land between the tribes, and enable and empower them to conquer what lay in the parameters of their inheritance.

The really cool thing is that Joshua did not push the issue with God. He did not try to be superman and conquer those areas that were someone else’s to conquer. His attitude was NOT “if it is going to be done right, I need to do it”. He did the tasks God assigned to him and then stepped back. He did not try to do it all.

Perhaps God has not assigned “all” to you.

Could the exhaustion, frustration, and burnout you feel be a sign that ‘all’ is not what is ‘best’…that ‘all’ is not God’s plan for you?

What part of ‘all’ can you and should you step back from?

Will you be obedient to God’s plan?

Just sayin’……