Thursday 5th March - Too Little, Too Wrinkly and Too Shy!

DAILY BYTE

If the first thing we learn about calling from Moses’ story is that all are called, then the second is that God’s call moves us irrevocably beyond ourselves. Moses was brought out of a desert and his previous way of life by God’s call on his life – he was told to risk the cut throat dynamics of a Pharaoh’s court and to brave the ruthless might of the Egyptian state.

One of the most redeeming parts of Moses’ story is just how real he is in the face of such a call. Moses does his best to weasel his way out of it – bringing up all sorts of long and involved excuses. This is just how we so often react to God’s call on our lives, especially when it is challenging us to move out of our comfort zones, to put aside our natural inclinations to selfishness and form our lives in some specific way around the graceful generosity of God.

Look through Moses’ excuses, then carefully consider the one’s you commonly use. ‘I am too young.’ ‘I am too old.’ ‘I am not gifted enough for that.’ ‘There is too much else I want to do first.’

Moses’ excuses were stammered out one by one and could be paraphrased as Moses feeling he was ‘too little, too wrinkly and too shy!’ In the face of God’s call on his life, Moses began to bring up a lifetime of fears and personal insecurities. Moses felt tiny in the face of the mighty Egyptian machine whose oppression of the Israelites had long been entrenched. Moses felt the creak and rattle of age in his bones, and also felt the long years of painfully stuttering his words meant he was complete unsuitable for the task of being God’s emissary.

The story is told of a man who became lost while travelling through the desert. He eventually became so thirsty that he grew drastically weakened. He stumbled along until he saw a well in the distance. At first he thought it was a hullicination but as he drew nearer he realise it was real. He scrambled as quickly as he could until he reached it but to his horror found it was dry.

Dropping to his knees in despair, the man’s eye by chance fell on a small pile of stones with the corner of a note sticking out from under them. The note read: ‘Dear friend. Dig further under these rocks and you will find a jaor of water. DON’T drink it! The well seems dry, but the pump leather just needs to be watered. If you pour the water from the jug onto the pump leather, it will then provide as much water as you need. Just fill up the jug and rebury it when you are finished.’

This story is about fearing the unknown. It must have been quite a moment of trepidation for this man – do I go with what I know and drink from this jug of stale water and sustain my life for at least another day, or do I trust the note’s message and pour out the jug in the hope that I will then have more than enough water to sustain my life for as long as I need to get out of this desert?

Perhaps Moses’ felt he was in a very similar predicament, wondering whether he should go with what he knew and could see with his own eyes – factors such as his age, his stutter, his puniness compared to Egyptian might – or whether he could trust God’s promise enough to see him through to the end of his mission.

These questions are ones we all grapple with in regard to God’s call on our own lives. Can I really trust God and what I believe he is calling me to do with my life? Do I spend my days hiding behind all sorts of excuses, or do I step out in faith and trust?

These are questions that only you can answer.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Holy God, so often I hide behind all sorts of smokescreens and excuses. Please forgive me. Give me the strength and courage I need to trust and obey the call you have placed upon my life. In Christ name I pray. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Exodus 3 : 7-11

The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."
But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"