This morning our staff gathered, as we do weekly, to Dwell in the Word. Dwell is a practice we do once a week where we spend time purposefully dwelling in the Scripture for the upcoming two Sundays. It begins with a prayer and then two readings of the same scripture. After that we get to reflect to a partner, uninterrupted for three minutes. Then you switch roles (within the partners) then we come back together as a whole group and your partner shares what they heard you say. Then we reflect on how this process went for each of us individually.
This morning, our second dwell passage was Exodus 2:11-25. During my time with my partner, I reflected on the part of the scripture where Moses is attempting to correct two Hebrew men he found fighting. One of the men says to Moses, “Who appointed you to be our prince and judge?” Then it is revealed that Moses is a murderer and he flees to Midian….
The place I was hung up on was this question of “Who appointed you?” The answer to the Hebrew man’s question is … No one… YET! It would be another 40 years before Moses was actually called to do the work of the Lord. At this point, Moses was just a highly confused Hebrew man who had been raised Egyptian, and having just killed an Egyptian slave driver for beating a Hebrew man. He was trying to put his own kind of salvation on his fellow Hebrews, thinking he knew what was best, when the reality was – that wasn’t God’s plan and he wasn’t ready yet for God’s plan.
Reflecting on a similar part of the passage, my partner said, “As God encounters us we are called to conform – to be in a better position of listening.”
It was so profound to me. So many times I think that I know what is best for any given problem presented before me. I think I know how to fix it all. And recently I have found myself in several situations that in all honesty, just plain suck. There are people in my life that are hurting in ways I can relate to but I can do nothing about. And in those moments all I can do is pray harder for God’s intervening hand. I can’t fix the situation, I can’t make this person act better towards this other person.
This past Sunday I prayed one of these prayers. Being at the complete end of my own rope in helping, I prayed fervently that God would intervene and open the eyes of the blind. That he would make this situation in my life go from broken to complete and to use me in the process.
And God moved. I am not saying the situation is healed, there is going to have to be a lot more prayer for that to happen completely. But there is progress. There has been movement that have happened that I could only dream of. It’s not complete but it’s a step forward.
Sometimes I need to remember that I am the one that needs to be attached to God, not God attached to me.
Pharaoh Pharaoh – oh Baby – let my people go
I must admit to you all (all 5 of you who read this blog) that I have been holding back on you. For the last few weeks my brain and life have been consumed by one particular topic, one massively intrusive and mind altering topic and I have kept you all in the dark. Mostly because that topic has been the theme that we are embarking on at church, and until our fall kick-off yesterday, we were keeping it a secret. So all the things that I’ve been thinking and struggling through, are now coming to light to our congregation and I can now talk through them on here. Hallelujah.
We are spending the next year at church immersed in the book of Exodus. We are attempting to Discover God’s Story through one of the most well known and possibly least known/understood stories of the Old Testament. I only say this because as our staff has spent the summer poring over the words of Moses, we always come up with more questions than answers. We always end our time together having learned or discovered something new about this so famous story. It’s mind blowing.
And I’m realizing that the themes of Exodus are EVERYWHERE within the Christian faith. Everywhere I turn I am bombarded with varying thoughts and perspectives on the Exodus story. It’s fascinating to me.
So all of that to say, I hope you understand that from here on out, you may read this blog and frequently find the story of Exodus in the topic. I hope it stimulates your thoughts the way it has mine. For now, I will leave you with one quote, setting the stage for this shift in blog material… this is from one of my worship class books by a woman named Constance Cherry:
After the death of Pharaoh who favored Joseph and his clan, the people of Israel found themselves in bondage and fragmented in purpose and vision. At just the right time from God’s point of view, he intervened with a might saving act that defined Israel’s history.