Purpose in the disruption

 

Discouragement and feeling of inadequacy strikes us at some point in life. No matter how confident we express ourselves to be, even the most type A personalities will feel ‘less than’ at some point. For me it is a daily or every other day battle. As I waddled through a few days in this struggle, the Lord led me to read Moses’s story.

 In Exodus 3 & 4 God calls Moses to lead Israel out of captivity. Moses obviously did not feel confident in this calling. He tried to find reasons after reasons to prove that he is not qualified to do this job. Moses battled the differences of his ethnicity as Israelite, and his upbringing as Egyptian. He went through his life for 80 years not fully knowing the purpose behind having been saved from death and raised in Pharaoh’s palace. In chapter 4, his ordinary life gets disrupted by a burning bush – a regular situation in the wilderness with a supernatural twist. In vs 2 – God asks Moses what is in his hands. Moses says that it is a staff. God asks him to throw it down and it becomes a serpent. In vs 6, God asks him to put his hand in his cloak. When he takes it out it becomes leprous. God asks him to do it again and the leprosy disappears. God didn’t create a purpose for Moses when he met him in the wilderness. But Moses was separated at birth for this purpose. Moses came to the realization of his calling when he heard God’s voice. In between the time of his birth to the time he heard the voice, Moses walked through what we call life - ordinary. Just like everyone else, Moses faced difficulties and trials. The staff in his hand was something he picked up on the way. It was not something that was given to him for a purpose. The miracle with his hand – shows what is inside of him. What happened to Moses along the walk of life, broke open what was originally placed inside of him. Olive has oil in it. The threshing of the olive to express the oil only allows the oil to come out. We all have walked through the ordinary of life – the regular pain and suffering. Have we really stood still to understand the purpose in these disruptions? Have we  leaned in to see what the heart of God says in the midst of our hard days?

I recognize that pain has changed how I show up in my life. I also know that some of those disruptions have hardened my heart in many areas. Lord, till the soil of my heart where it is hardened. I want to be an image- bearer of Christ. I don’t want anything in my past, my pain or my regular personality to limit how God can show up through me for someone else. I pray that my eyes will be opened to see the purpose in those disruptions, so I become better with what I have left than what I have lost. God can turn our pain into our power. I pray that God will show me his glory daily that I may become the evidence of him where he plants me, and I don’t let the fear of being ordinary stop me from being obedient.  

Written by: Anu Varghese