Dear Friends,
But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs. For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. So then, welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honour people like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ. He risked his life to make up for the help you yourselves could not give me. [Philippians 2:25-30]
Very soon it will be the final AGMs of Warwick Road URC and West Orchard URC followed by a church meeting where we will look at filling gaps in those jobs that need to be done in our merged Baginton Road URC. And I know we will get to that point in the proceedings that everyone dreads when I pronounce those terrible words. ‘Any volunteers?’. I suspect there will be posts where there are no volunteers. Paradoxically, if I were to ask someone directly, face to face, there is the prospect of a very different response because when we are put on the spot many of us find it virtually impossible to say ‘no’. It may be a cliché but it is also true that ‘if you want something done, ask a busy person’.
However, what the saying fails to add is that that extra task taken on may just prove to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. So, if you are the sort of person who takes on ever more jobs, responsibilities and demands, even when you are already flagging under the strain, take note. Paul’s words afford us a glimpse of Epaphroditus, a man who quite clearly took on too much and nearly paid for it with his life. He learned the hard way that we all have our limitations beyond which it is foolhardy to push ourselves. It may seem the Christian thing to say yes, but if it causes our health to suffer endangering the happiness of those we love and, in the end, preventing us from fulfilling the responsibilities as we would want to; then perhaps it is time to learn to say no. All of us can do something, however small. None of us is called to do everything!
God bless,
Yvonne