Insecurity, Excuses & God by Jason Graves

This is a Guest Post from my friend & partner in ministry, Jason Graves. Jason serves as the Spiritual Formation Minister at the Riverside Church of Christ in Coppell, TX.

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I have a tendency to romanticize the idea of being called by God.

In my moments of discontent or restlessness I find myself wishing that God would do something undeniable (Voice from the clouds. Talking donkey. Whatever, I’m not picky) to let me know exactly what I need to do with my life. Somehow I’ve convinced myself that if God would do that then everything would be just dandy. Surely that kind of clarity of hearing a specific call from God would give me fulfillment and contentment and purpose.

Then I watch something like this scene from Prince of Egypt in which Moses has that very experience and I think , “Oh wait! No. Never mind!”

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZk7lhXg7m0[/embedyt]

I would be scared out of my mind! Not really by the burning bush thing, but more by being called to something so incredibly crazy. The truth is God never calls us to the easy stuff. He calls us to do the things that really matter in this world and those are seldom, if ever, easy.

So, how do you respond when the thing you are fearful of is the thing that God has called you to do?

Most of the time we do exactly what we see Moses do. We make excuses. When God calls him to go into Egypt, face down Pharaoh and rescue the Israelites Moses gives this extensive list (Exodus 3 & 4):

3:11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
3:13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
4:1 Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”
4:10 Moses said to the LORD, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
4:13 But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”

Often when I’ve heard this story told poor Moses comes off looking fairly bad. He’s painted as a man who has allowed his fears to overcome him in the face of God’s call.
But, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Let’s cut him some slack for a few reasons:
His questions are legitimate. Wouldn’t you ask a few yourself?
His fears are totally normal, not just for every human ever, but also in the context of the Bible. This really is a typical “called by God” story in that most of the people God sent out for a purpose had questions and objections themselves. Isaiah thought he was doomed the moment he encountered God. Jeremiah was convinced someone older should do the work. And Jonah just took off. Even Mary had very legitimate questions about her call.

So, maybe this story isn’t really about Moses’ resistance. The truth is excuses aren’t inherently bad. They’re natural. The problem comes when we allow those excuses to separate us from the call of God.
Not many of us have had a moment with God like Moses did. But all of us who have taken on Christ have been called to love God and love our neighbors, to make disciples, to care for the outcast and unloved. There are not too many questions about what God would have us do in our lives. Yet, too often, we find excuses to hold us from those things.

Or maybe it’s more fair to say we find one excuse. Like a child only needs one reason to reject a new food, too often we allow one “good” excuse to be enough to take us away from God’s call.

“I’m too busy.”
“I don’t know where to start.”
“I don’t have enough Bible knowledge.”
“I’ve tried and failed.”
“I’m not spiritual enough.”
“It’s not realistic where I work.”
The list can go on.

But here’s a truth from the story of Moses and the Burning Bush:

God’s call will not be limited by your fear or your excuses.

Because this isn’t about you. Fear makes you think that it is. It makes you think that life is about staying safe. It makes you think that your excuses are too strong to overcome what God wants to do in the world. Fear is normal, but it is not the final truth.

The third reason to cut Moses some slack is that he doesn’t leave the conversation. In the end he says “yes”.

Here’s where I should get to say, “and Moses found all the fulfillment and happiness he was looking for.”
But the story of Moses is not about God calling him to give him contentment and fulfillment. It’s not about Moses. It’s not a story about pushing through our fears to the wonderful life on the other side.

This is not a self-help story.
It’s an others-help story.

Notice that God’s answers to Moses’s concerns are not focused on Moses or making Moses feel good.

3:5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
3:6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”
3:7 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
3:12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
3:14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.
He gives Moses three signs to prove who He is. He is not going to give up on this.
4:11 The LORD said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the LORD? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

God isn’t trying to build Moses’ personal confidence. He’s trying to build his faith.

He’s telling Moses that he can believe in God’s identity, His faithfulness, and His almost desperate desire to save His people.

At one point, God loads Moses down with three separate signs to prove that he’s been called. In essence God says,”I’m gonna give you every resource I have, not to make you feel good about yourself, but to save my people.”

Fear turns our focus inward.
Faith turns us outward.
Fear makes life about us.
Faith makes life about God’s plan for the world.

The truth of all this is that we can find our faith in what God has done and is doing in the world. We know what God’s desires for the world are. He has shown us in Christ what He is willing to do for His people and He asks us to join Him in that.

Earlier I said that our excuses are not inherently bad.
I want to push that a little further. I want to say that our excuses are necessary.
In overcoming every objection Moses had, God showed His power and His love. He does the same with us. It is in watching our excuses fall one-by-one that we begin to see who really is in charge. It keeps us humble. It keeps us focused.

The apostle Paul said as much in a letter to the Corinthians in which he claims that he had been given some obstacle, some “thorn in the flesh” that would keep many of us down. Here’s what he says about it:

“8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” – 2 Corinthians 12:8-10

We can have faith in what God desires to do in and for the world. So, I encourage you to stay in the conversation with Him. Listen to Him in prayer, in Scripture, in trusted voices. Listen for what he calls you to every single day.

Oh, and bring every excuse you have. Watch what He does to them.

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