“I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”    

“[He] crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.” 

“[You have] hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes.”

I love the story of Moses because it gives me such reassurance.  Moses thought he was called by God to save his people when he was 40, but he really messed things up when he tried to take the solution into his own hands.  He had to run for his life and for the next forty years he lived in Midian.  It was not all bad.  He married and had two boys and helped his father-in-law, and led a seemingly peaceful life as a shepherd (Ex 2:11-22, 3:1).  Today’s reading from Exodus occurs when Moses was 80 years old!  God tells Moses that NOW it is time to save Israel.

This always gives me hope because it does not matter how old I am God will always have a job for me.  If I mess things up by jumping in with my own plan I know that God can make it work.  I just have to be in touch with Him.  In order to do that I have to have silent time, though it is not tending sheep, I can make silent time a priority in my life so that I have time to listen.  To be ‘in tune’ with what God is asking me to do.  So I can know how I am to be His hands, His tongue, His feet.  How I can bring Christ to others in my own unique way.

Even when I mess up, He continues to love me and forgives me for my rashness.  He has use for that very same ‘I can do it’ attitude, and that abandonment, that willingness to take risks.  I just have to remember that it is His plan, not mine, that will succeed.  It is His time frame, not mine, that must be followed.  It is His will, not mine, that will make it happen.

We must by open, humble, innocent like children, obedient, available, and useable.  Even Moses argued that he was not the man for this job (Ex 3:11-12), but God told him he would be with him.  He assures us that He will be with us too, so we TRUST.  Revelation is granted to those who are open to receive it and refused to the arrogant.

Lord, help us to make You a priority in our life so that we make and keep the time we set aside for You.  Help us to be listeners.  Help us to hear your message that comes to us through the scriptures, through our life experiences, and through the murmuring of the Holy Spirit.  Fill us with the courage to say ‘yes’ to your will and the perseverance to follow through.