Tuesday 3rd March - A Rather Ordinary Type of Shrubbery

DAILY BYTE

Almost immediately, the story of Moses’ call challenges one of the greatest weaknesses of modern Christian though, which too often only connects the concept of God call to certain professions such as ministers or missionaries.

The Bible is emphatic, however, that every Christian has some part to play in God’s great plan to reach the world. For you are part of a greater cosmic destiny, part of God’s age-old plan to save the world, part of a Godly dream to work goodness, hope, love and grace into everything.

What is important to remember is that we are not called because of what we can or cannot do – our calling is not dependant on gifting; rather it is connected with who we are. Calling is wrapped up in our identity as children of God. It has nothing to do with talent or intelligence and everything to do with our availability and God’s kindness.

Certainly, there was nothing special about Moses, who was a commoner raised with royalty but threw away his royal privileges in a moment of unguarded rage. He then spent most of the rest of his life living as a shepherd with a speech impediment in some backwater desert working for his father-in-law. Moses must have been close to finally taking his pension when one day he stumbled on a burning bush.

Another common misconception we tend to have around calling is that we believe God only speaks to us through these amazing burning bush experiences. The mistake in that thinking is that it is not the bush that sustains the burning but God in the bush. The bush is just ordinary, everyday shrubbery, part of the background scenery. The whole point is that God regularly speaks through ordinary every day things – it doesn’t have to be a bush.

Astronomers who search for life on other planets tells ust ath we may well be constantly bombarded by messages from outer space but simply don’t know how to recognise them. This is an apt picture for us. Are we constantly showered with divine messages that we simply don’t hear?

Before wondering why your life has not seen many burning bushes, first ask yourself the following questions: How much time and effort do I put in actually listening for the voice of God? How hard do I strive to recognise the patterns of grace God weaves into the ordinary everyday matters and events of my life? Do I make concerted efforts to get onto God’s wavelength?

For perhaps the problem is not that you’ve never had a burning bush experience, but that you have never learnt to see how the divine burns so brightly in ordinary everyday things.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord God, you are constantly speaking into ordinary, everyday events and experiences. Open my eyes, ears and heart to the burning bushes that I rush by everyday without noticing. Teach me to ‘notice’ O God how brightly your presence burns within my life. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE

Exodus 3 : 1-4

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up."
When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!"
And Moses said, "Here I am."