There is too much on me right now and I cannot see a way through any of it. Everything is urgent and I am starting to freeze up entirely. Where do I even begin?

“And Moses' father in law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good. Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.”

Moses was judging every dispute in Israel himself, from morning until evening, and his father in law watched one full day of it before saying plainly that what he was doing was not good and would wear him out. The correction did not come from God in a thundercloud. It came from a relative with fresh eyes who could see what Moses could not see from inside the workload.

“And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.”

The disciples had just returned from an exhausting stretch of ministry, and Mark notes there were so many people coming and going that they had not even had time to eat. Jesus does not commend the pace or press them harder. He pulls them out of it, physically, to somewhere quiet. Rest, in this scene, is not a reward for finishing. It is an instruction given in the middle of unfinished work.