The Call

I had a moment of compassion for Moses the other day.  What a confusing life this guy had!  Adopted by Pharoah's daughter, but raised by his mother for the first few years of life.  Then taken away from his mother to go live in Pharoah's household.  Meanwhile his family and friends are slaves, suffering because of the unjust treatment of his adoptive family.  He is not fully a part of either family, living on the edge of both.  Then in a moment of anger over the injustice, he tried to defend his people by killing one of the slavemasters.   The result: Both his biological and adoptive families rejected him!  He flees into the desert and ends up forming a completely new family through his new wife.  He finally belongs!  Then, years later... he stumbles upon a burning bush, and a God he doesn't even know tells him to go back to Egypt to lead his people out of Egypt against the will of the Pharoah, the most powerful military force in the world.  Riiiiiiiight...   It's easy to criticize Moses' hesitation, but, seriously???  How many of us enjoy conversations like the one he would have to have with both of his families...  or how many of us would feel ok about walking up to the King of a nation and tell them we are taking away their entire slave labor?  I mean, our country had a civil war over this issue!

Moses' first question was, "Um, who are you?"  (I think I would want to know who was asking me to do this too!)  Then, "Aaaaaaand... what's your name?"  (Another good one!)  God was very patient with Moses and took time to introduce Himself to him and even to humor Moses' request for someone else to speak instead.  God let him bring his brother Aaron along.

Moses could not see himself the same way God did.  He didn't know his potential because He didn't know God. Plain and simple.  Why should he?  He never belonged.  He was often judged, abandoned, passed around and then right-out rejected by both his peoples.  Why would he ever think of himself as someone with purpose, someone loved by God, respected by others or fully accepted?  This was not his experience.

When God said "Hello" and called Moses into his purpose, it clashed with the story Moses had been telling himself his whole life.  God was introducing Moses to the way God had seen him all along.  Before Moses was born, God knew who Moses would be.  I imagine God watching Moses' life, knowing all along what the future held.  How would Moses' life been different if he knew this too? We will never know, but what we do know is twofold:

1. It took Moses time to fully lean into who God said he was.
2. When God called Moses into his destiny, everything changed.

What if this is true of us as well?  We live our lives by the story and identity we create for ourselves, based on experiences we have had, until God calls us into a different story.  He begins to show us how HE sees us.  God's vision of us is WAY bigger than the vision we have of ourselves.  And this changes everything if we will only lean into it.  What if there is a story you cannot see, an identity that God has given you, a love unknown, a family of your own, a calling on your life you have no idea about?  Has God been calling out to you?  Has He been saying there is something more?  It may take time to adjust our story to His, but it changes everything...

DP