Choose your battles

A recurring phenomenon among volunteers and also with missionaries is: “the need is great, but there are only 24 hours in one day”. Whether you work as a missionary or from a non-Christian background, you will encounter that problem at some point.

Well…. At “some” point? A lot. Is that good news? Yes. Because, let’s face it, you’re in the place you are because there was a shortage of help in your area of expertise where you come to bring that help, so if you’ve never had to deal with that problem… then there was no shortage …and why are you where you are? (yes, yes, that takes some thinking. #lol) In other words, if you are in the right place, you will have to deal with this. No escape from that.

The shortage of workers is also nothing new:

Then He (Jesus) said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.

Matthew 9:37

If Jesus did see that happening more than 2,000 years ago, you will certainly encounter it. Nothing to be ashamed of. One of the solutions is the following (and yes, there are several solutions, this time we will only discuss this approach)

Sometimes you have to choose not to fight a battle in order to win the war.

Huh? Say what? Let’s try to explain it like this:

You can’t do everything, and sometimes you have to (maybe unfortunately) choose to leave something to someone else to solve it. If you have to solve everything personally, you will ultimately die, and then you will certainly have lost the war.

So, you have to make choices. Which “struggle”, project, meeting, conversation, topic, is REALLY important and MUST be done now, and what can you and should you leave to someone else and trust that someone else will do it. In this matter, you must keep in mind that if you lose the real war, you will have a serious problem. So that is absolutely not an option. Very simple said, if you choose to fight every battle, but as a result, you no longer have time to breathe, and it kills you or your family, then you may have won that fight, but lost the war. And winning that war was precisely your goal! A tool can be the following:

I: Is something important and urgent to you? Do it yourself immediately. For example: your wife comes home crying after a bad day at work. If you then say: “sorry, I don’t have time right now because I have an important meeting”, you may win the battle in the meeting, but you will lose the war. Oops…

II: Is something important, but not urgent? Plan it. It really can wait for a while. Example: paying the rent. That really isn’t necessary NOW. Your payment term is usually 14 days, so there is nothing to worry about as long as you pay it before then. However, if you don’t plan it and forget… then you have a problem. Then suddenly your landlord shows up on your doorstep and it suddenly becomes urgent. Oops….

III: Is something not important, but is urgent for you? Let a competent employee, co-worker, neighbor, real friend, fellow Christian do it for you, and don’t try to do it yourself. Example: you need new postage stamps. You’re just busy feeding the homeless, but the stamps are all used, and a letter still needs to be sent out today. Then you have to make a choice. What am I going to do? Get stamps and leave the homeless hungry? No, of course you don’t. In other words, ask someone to get those stamps for you. Top tip: why not ask that homeless person to do that for you? Feed him first and then let him get stamps if he wants to do so. One hand helps the other! (keep this example in mind for a moment, we will come back to this later)

IV: Is something neither important nor urgent for you? Why are you doing it, to begin with?! Why don’t you honestly say no. Sorry, I’m not going to do this. Be honest. So often we see people burn down because they can’t say “no”. So often we see people doing things on the mission field that are really not important and absolutely not urgent, and yet…. When someone asks them to do it: they drop everything and start working on it NOW. “Because we have to help each other.” But if it’s not important and not urgent to you, why do it? If you’re not careful, these are the things that often leave you winning a needless, unwinnable fight and by doing so, losing the war. Oops….

I, II and IV are easy. But III? Hand something over to someone else? “I prefer to do it myself because then I know for sure that it will happen”… you know that feeling? And yes, we know that one too. Handing over something is often quite exciting. Because we live in a not perfect world, and we all know: not everyone keeps their agreements, and then you have a problem… Yep. It happens. But if you let this fear rule you, you will have to do everything by yourself, and you will have to fight every battle again, and by doing so, you will certainly lose the war.

And then there comes something where, as a missionary worker / pastor, you have an advantage over a non-Christian development worker:

The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.

Exodus 14:14

You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.

2 Chronicles 20:17

The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes,

Deuteronomy 1:30

The Bible is FULL of examples of God going to battle for you! You can always trust Him to do what is good for His plan. In other words, if you find it difficult to leave something to someone else, your team, the homeless person who you ask to get stamps, your colleague. What do you have to do then? Trust God and ask Him to fight that battle for you if you can’t do it right now:

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles.

Psalm 34:17

God can be trusted 110%. With Him, you can not only fight the battle, but you will always win the war. And while we cry out to Him, what can we do at the same time? Then we’ll look again at that verse from Matthew 9:37. Because after verse 37 comes… (you’ll never guess) verse 38:

37: Then He (Jesus) said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38: Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Matthew 9:37-38

Do it. Now. This is not only important, but also urgent. And the rest? Plan, delegate (and trust God to fight that battle) or just don’t do it. But for now: join us in verse 38… “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”