Sometimes, the hardest thing about following God is learning that we aren't responsible for doing everything ourselves.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul talks about the role each of us has in the body of Christ. We are all given different gifts, different responsibilities, and different opportunities to serve. We aren't expected to do everything. We're called to faithfully do our part.
That idea takes me back to one of the hardest—and, in many ways, best—jobs I ever had.
When I was in college, I worked for an excavator. It was hard, dirty work, and I was a laborer working alongside an experienced excavator operator. He was incredibly skilled. He could move an enormous amount of dirt with incredible precision, making things look effortless.
Meanwhile, I was exhausting myself trying to move dirt by hand.
I remember him looking at me and saying something along the lines of, "If you would just learn, I'll move the dirt. You just do what I tell you to do."
He would tell me where to put a pipe, grab a tool, take a measurement, or make a small adjustment. My job wasn't to move the mountain of dirt. My job was to do the small task he had given me.
At the time, I didn't fully appreciate the lesson.
But years later, I think about that experience when I think about my relationship with God. How often do we do the same thing?
We see the enormous problems in front of us—the things we can't control, the challenges we don't know how to solve, and the "mountains" that seem impossible to move—and we start working ourselves to exhaustion trying to fix them.
We carry burdens that were never ours to carry. But maybe God is saying:
"I'm the one who moves the mountains. You just do what I've asked you to do."
Our responsibility isn't to control the outcome. It's to be faithful with what God has placed in front of us.
Sometimes that means taking one small step. Sometimes it means helping someone else. Sometimes it means doing the work that doesn't seem significant. And sometimes it means simply trusting God enough to stop trying to control everything.
That doesn't mean we sit back and do nothing. Faith requires action. We still have responsibilities, decisions to make, people to serve, and work to accomplish.
But there is a difference between faithfully doing our part and trying to do God's part for Him.
We aren't meant to carry everything alone.
Paul reminds us that we are part of a larger body, and every person has a role to play. We need one another. We each bring different gifts and abilities to the table. When we work together and allow God to lead us, we can accomplish far more than we could ever accomplish on our own.
So, if you're feeling exhausted today, it may be worth asking yourself:
Am I tired because of the work God has given me—or because I'm trying to do work He never asked me to do?
Maybe the mountain in front of you isn't yours to move.
Maybe your job is simply to take the next step, do the task God has placed in front of you, love the people around you, and trust Him with everything else.
You don't have to move the mountain. Let God do that. Just be faithful with the dirt He's put in front of you.
