Starting Over: It's Not as Easy as It Seems

I don't know if you've ever stepped away from the life and work with which you were comfortable to do an entirely new thing, but I have. 

It's not as easy as it looks. 

This morning, I read in Exodus about Moses' return to Egypt after forty years in his personal wilderness. He had been comfortable shepherding Jethro's flocks. He knew how to do what must be done, and he was skilled at it. 

I know about being skilled and comfortable in your work. It's hard to give up the sense of security it gives.

Shepherding people was an entirely different matter. Demanding their release from Pharaoh was a task that seemed doomed from the start, and Moses felt unqualified. He didn't want the job and he repeatedly asked God to get someone else.

I know about being uncomfortable in the new work God has planned. I've said, more than once, "I can't do this. You should call someone else."

From the beginning at the burning bush, God told Moses it would be hard. Pharaoh would not want to let the people go and God would have to force their release. 

"I'll do miracles that convince everyone. The Egyptians will give you their treasures to get you to leave. This will work out." (Leanna Paraphrase) 

I've heard "this will work out", too. It not much comfort when you're desperately trying to find your way.

No matter what God said, one thing was clear. Moses didn't want the job. The obedience he offered was half-hearted because he felt so unqualified. In the end, God sent Aaron to do much of the work He had called Moses to do.

What Moses couldn't see was that God had prepared him to the do the work. Moses had spent his first forty years living in the Egyptian court as the grandson of Pharaoh. He was familiar with the court and its ways. More important, he had been trained in leadership. 

Moses had spent another forty years in the wilderness. He knew how to manage livestock and how to survive in the wilderness. 

It's easy to forget that our journey through life is part of God's plan. Nothing is ever wasted. We serve a God who is more than able to accomplish what He intends. Even with us.

Moses, at the age of eighty years, returned to Egypt with every skill he needed to accomplish the work God had given him, but he refused to believe it. God could take the skills He had already placed in Moses to accomplish exactly what He intended. All Moses had to do was obey each step of the way.

When we, like Moses, move out of our comfort zone, we tend to see the uncomfortable, but we fail to see the detailed way God has equipped us in advance. 

We see the monumental task but we fail to realize the smaller steps along the way that will get us there. 

Like Moses, I'm in a new place. Writing fiction was not what I had planned to do with my life, but here I am. Struggling to make sense of point of view and character development. Agonizing over balancing emotion with story, depth with detail. It's harder than I thought. I know I'm not qualified. I'm pretty sure I can't do it.

But God. 

Our Lord reminded me again today that He released the children of Israel with one miracle at a time. It took one act of obedience after another to accomplish their deliverance. 

In that same way, this job is a series of tasks that, when completed, will make a whole. My job is to develop one character at a time. One scene at a time. In the end, the parts will make the whole.

Perhaps you, too, are called to a task that feels overwhelming. Maybe the job God has given is far too big for you. 

He has called you to a God-sized task.

Take heart. Our God is in the business of preparation. He will equip you to do that to which He has called you. All you have to do is obey, one step at a time. It may take longer than you'd like, but He will accomplish that which He has planned.
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In case you missed one of this week's posts, here are the links:    The Importance of Light, A Little Good News: Working Together,  Things I've Learned: There is a God and I'm Not It, Cutting Down a Tree and Praying for Miracles, and The Tree That Preached a Sermon, The Wounded Deer and the Unsaid Words, and Being Angry Without Sin.

#chronologicalBible #obedience #JesusChrist #authorlife #iamwriting #preparation

Signs of the Times

“And He was also saying to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, 'A shower is coming,' and so it turns out. And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, 'It will be a hot day,' and it turns out that way. You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time?”   Luke 12:54-56 NASB

My Mama, and my Grandmother before her, were walking almanacs. They tried to judge what would happen based on "rules" of nature. "Red at night, sailor's delight; red in the morning, sailors take warning" was an example of one of those rules that told of what the weather would be the coming day.

Jesus had been speaking to His disciples, but, in these verses, He turned to the crowds and began to speak of those age-old weather signs. They could recognize a rain cloud and know that rain was coming. They could recognize a south wind and know that it would be a hot day.  

It was fine to recognize the weather based on signs, Jesus told them, but what about the thing that matters most? They worried about the weather when something much more important was unfolding before their very eyes. Their Messiah had come, and most of them completely failed to recognize Him. "Why don't you analyze the present time?" Jesus asked them.

Indeed. Why don't we analyze the present time?

What was happening in their present time? The nation of Israel had been invaded by an occupying army. Roman soldiers walked their streets. Roman governors ruled them. One more important than the Romans also walked through their towns and villages, but they were in danger of completely missing Him.

Jesus was there. He was the promised Messiah, but He looked nothing like they anticipated, nothing like they thought they needed. Isaiah tried to tell them He wouldn't look like they expected. The Messiah would be despised and forsaken. He would not have a stately form or majesty. He would be easy to miss.

“For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. 

He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 

Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 

But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 

All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. 

By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?”

                                                                                                                        Isaiah 53:2-8 NASB

"Analyze the times," Jesus recommended. They knew what Isaiah had written, and still they missed Him, because the people wanted political deliverance. What they needed was deliverance from their sin. 

We find ourselves in much the same situation today. There is considerable worry about the upcoming presidential elections, the potential for religious persecution, the sin of this world. Terrified by the ever-increasing evil around us, we want the progress of wickedness halted.

We want a political deliverance. What we need is deliverance from ourselves and our own sin.

The Sons of Issachar were men who understood the times and what the nation should do. (1 Chr. 12:32) Christian leaders today are serving as Sons of Issachar, analyzing the times and telling us what we should do. They are all recommending the same thing. It's what I've been writing and saying, too.

We need Jesus. No one else will do.

No one else can change our hearts, from which all the evil flows. No one else can change the heart of kings (and presidents and congress members and political leaders). No one else can be our stability in unstable times.  

No one but Jesus.

Let us pay attention to the times in which we live. Let us take note of the darkness of sin that surrounds us and threatens to overtake us. Let us recognize the signs, but not be overwhelmed or afraid.

Is Jesus coming soon? We are closer than we've ever been to that glorious day, but there is no need to wait for His glorious appearing for change. In fact, if we wait for His glorious appearing to change, we will be too late. God is still on His throne. He is still in charge. He is still waiting for us to repent and turn to Him with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength. He is still waiting for us to obey.

Just to be clear. We do not primarily prepare for what is coming by storing beans and rice and toilet paper, no matter how prudent those actions may be. (Yes, I do believe in being prepared, but not in hoarding) We prepare by falling on our knees in repentance, then walking in obedience to Him.

Time is short. Be ready.

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We started this series with a lesson about the fire of persecution. Others include lessons from the life of Tyndale, Christ's baptism of suffering, squeeze chute of distress, and yesterday's division of belief. 

photo courtesy of freeimages.com 

#signsofthetimes #JesusChrist #theBible #disciple #preparation #prepping #sonsofIssachar