Exodus 4:1-5:21
Matthew 18:1-20
Psalm 22:19-31
Proverbs 5:15-21
Ok, so maybe it wasn't just a bad day Moses had - but it sure was a bad stretch. First, he encounters our Lord one-on-one, hears His voice and recognizes it...and converses with Him. And y et, despite the burning bush, despite the voice, despite the demonstrations of His power with the staff and the hand and the water turning into blood, when God tells Moses to go do something, Moses is crazy enough to say "uh, no." God asks why, and Moses says he wouldn't know what to say. God says "I'll tell you what to say"...and Moses still says no. Then after God has decided to accommodate Moses's stubbornness by sending his brother Aaron along with him, Moses forgets to obey God's command and runs the risk of death. Finally, when he goes and does what God asks, he seems to have achieved the direct opposite of what he thought he had been sent to do - not only do the Israelites remain in slavery, their burden has been increased - they now have to produce the same number of bricks but without the straw they'd been given previously...all because Moses passed on God's message to Pharaoh.
We all have bad days. Sometimes it seems they are bad because we refused to obey God. Sometimes it seems they are bad because we did. I'm in the middle of such a situation - trying to do the best I can at work, but finding I have more and more to do as a result. The last few days haven't been easy, and I've wondered where God was, why He was permitting everything that was taking place, and when He would say "enough". What to do? Thankfully, today's readings give us two possible courses of action.
The first is to pray - to pray desperately, without alternative, the way the Canaanite woman prayed to Jesus for her daughter's salvation, as Kenny preached yesterday. To pray with a life saving desperation remembering God is our strength..."come quickly to help me. Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs...from the mouth of the lions...from the horns of the wild oxen." And the second is to trust, the way Jesus describes the little ones. I imagine almost every parent will have shared what I've experienced often - the fear of my child, overcome when they slip their hand in mine and know we walk the path together. These solutions sound simple, but they aren't easy - they aren't solutions you can just turn on or off. No, they are solutions you have to develop, like habits - which is tough, when you want the answer right now.
In this instance, my son, Christian, comes to mind. My almost 11-year old started swimming some 15 months ago. He would compete and finish last in his age group, last in his heat. But he worked diligently, in practice, every day. I'd ask his coach if he was working, and coach would always say, without fail, that Christian wasn't just working, he was pushing himself hard. Over the weekend, he competed and swam three events, won 2 of his heats, and went fast enough to qualify for regionals. His diligence paid off. I need to apply the same diligence, in order to learn to pray desperately, and to develop a child like trust. Thank you, Christian, for giving me the roadmap I need.
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