By James Hannibal @jamesrhannibal

“What you’re doing is not good,” Moses’s father-in-law said to him. “You will certainly wear out both yourself and these people who are with you, because the task is too heavy for you. You can’t do it alone.” Exodus 18:17-18

You can’t do it alone.

As a combat pilot, I never told my weapons loader to stand aside and let me strap the Maverick missiles to the jet. As an airline captain, I’ve never asked a flight attendant to take a seat while I give the passengers a safety briefing. Why would I? It takes teamwork to launch a fighter for a combat mission or get a plane-load of passengers safely to their destination.

No one person can do it all. I’ve known this for a long time. So, why do I still try to do it as an author?

An icicle, not a straw, broke the camel’s back.

COVID-19, the resulting whiplash for airline personnel, and increasing demands from our Lightraider game company all contributed to the inevitable crash. But it was the Houston ice storm that brought me to my knees.

On-call pilots tend to fly a lot in the days surrounding a natural disaster, filling in the gaps as delays, cancellations, and closures ripple through the system. This time was no different. Between short notice assignments and preplanned travel for speaking, I haven’t been home for more than 40 hours at a time since mid-February, even though we live at the heart of the disaster zone. In three weeks, the pile-up of marketing, manufacturing, editing, and writing responsibilities went from barely surmountable to “heart attack waiting to happen.” While trying to remain in command of it all, I dragged my family through a chaotic rollercoaster. I left us all exhausted.

So, my incredible wife called an emergency meeting.

“A meeting.” Ha! That’s like calling the hand that saves you from drowning a “high five.” A better term for it would be “an intervention.” The end result was me relinquishing command of my author schedule and commitments to her—no easy thing for either of us. Such a dramatic change demanded that she be willing to step up and I be willing to step down. I’m so grateful for the former, but I’m struggling with the latter. It’s early days. In fact, not long after the intervention, I had to leave again for more than 60 hours.

We had our first meeting as author and manager/CEO/COO this morning.

Cindy brought a giant book/binder thingy into our study. I asked what it was. “A calendar,” she said, and kindly refrained from adding, “You big dummy.” Within moments, she determined I was a week behind in writing this blog (who knew?), and on it went from there. She created a full calendar for March, prioritized responsibilities and tasks for this month and part of the next, then set a task list and schedule for the day—and that was only the first ten minutes.

Some of us like to write about lone-wolf spies or frontier heroines who do it all on their own. But that’s fiction. Time and again, God shows us through His Word that we are supposed to share our burdens and our control. Here are some examples:

God gave man authority over His creation.

Jethro advised Moses to delegate.

Pharaoh placed Joseph over all of Egypt.

Solomon appointed governors over Israel.

Nehemiah gathered leaders to rebuild and defend the wall.

The list goes on. And take note. These are not simply task assignments. Each case represents a granting of authority. We find one big example in Matthew 5 as Christ sends out His disciples. In verse 8, He says, “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you received, freely give.” That’s some serious delegated command.

This bears repeating. These examples from Scripture are not task assignments, but delegated authority.

I repent. I’ve known for more than two decades that I was blessed with a spouse more organized than Joseph. But when “asking her for help” in the past, I gave her tasks—a honey-do list. I couldn’t bring myself to let go of control. I tried to be both general and field soldier at the same time, when what I needed to do was relinquish command and go man my post. What I needed to do was give her my trust.

Like I said, it’s day one. But we’re both already breathing a sigh of relief.

Look closely at the passage from Exodus 18. Jethro tells Moses he must delegate authority because he is wearing out both himself and the people with him. By not trusting Cindy with the authority she needed, I wore us both out (and our kids).

Maybe you’re seeing a similar affect in your writing life or some other area. Is there some control you need to give up, someone you need to trust with authority? We all know that we need to give in to God’s sovereignty. But sometimes that means relinquishing control to those He’s sent to help you.

As a former stealth pilot, James R. Hannibal is no stranger to secrets and adventure. He has been shot at, locked up with surface to air missiles, and chased down a winding German road by an armed terrorist. He is a two-time Silver Falchion award-winner for his Section 13 mysteries for kids, a Thriller Award nominee for his Nick Baron covert ops series for adults, and a Selah Award finalist for his Christian CIA thriller, the Grypyhon Heist. James is a rare multi-sense synesthete. Want to know more? Visit JamesRHannibal.com.