REMEMBER…and CALL IT WHAT IT IS.
Ever found yourself looking back on a situation in life or a distant place where you came from and when you contrast it against where you are now you wonder, “WHEN DID EVERYTHING CHANGE?”
I’ve found that it is important to take note of the bad times as well as the good. Admit that the financial stress last year was BAD or the professional recognition this year was GOOD. Call it like it is. A spade is a spade.
Or is it?…
When Moses approached God at the burning bush, we read that God asked Moses a question. “Moses,” He says, “what is that in your hand?”
“My staff,” Moses replies. Consider this: do you really think God asked Moses that question because He didn’t know what he held in his hand? I think God want Moses to firmly establish in his own mind by saying out loud exactly what was in his hand. A staff. Dead wood, inanimate, easily manipulated by Moses’ hands.
As soon as Moses declares what is in fact in his hand, God transforms that staff into a snake. A living, moving, and not easily manipulated serpent. God’s power displays itself again by transforming Moses’ healthy hand into a leprous diseased limb. And, just as quickly, God restores his hand back to perfect health.
Maybe our circumstances don’t turn a 180 or change from a stick to serpent and back again as quickly as this, but there is power in acknowledging where you are in your bad circumstance and calling it what it is. God doesn’t leave the circumstance there…He changes it/transforms it/empowers it/restores it in a miraculous way that we have no power to do alone.
He wanted Moses to acknowledge what was in his hand. There would be no mistaking that serpent for some common variety cave-snake and Moses wouldn’t be searching the cave for his misplaced staff.
Don’t mistake the transformation in your life for a common or serendipitous occurence. Remember where you came from and look at where you are now. Did you do that on your own or did you watch God transform your “staff”.
CALL IT WHAT IT IS.
Have you experienced a moment where you wondered when it all changed?
Aaron, thank you for reminding us how limited our understanding & even explanation of life is! Personally, there has been many times where I seem to be holding a stick w/ thorns or poison ivy – in relation to my diabetes or other diseases. I, like many, have seen these “health issues” as limitations or things that define who God has made me to be. But its quite the opposite.
It is not a curse, but an opportunity for God to show His power. I was for some reason shocked how healthy I was during my week in Ecuador – on a mission trip without that seemed beyond my physical ability, which was the excuse used for years.
Just as God showed His provision that week & His possibly His purpose through all of this being to show others to rely on Him & He will give you strength through your weaknesses.
Maybe God allowed Moses to deal with the hardship of stuttering so that when he was called to speak (of all things!), there would be a reason for his brother Aaron to be called as well & for his won purpose to be fulfilled.
I guess this is why I am not a realist – there’s no way I can claim to call it what it is when I can’t understand or know the true outcome of it.
By: Shelley Richardson on April 9, 2010
at 9:55 AM
Great post Aaron. It is so easy to lose perspective and not see things as God sees them! Thanks for sharing this!
By: Justin Davis on April 8, 2010
at 6:29 PM
I so often tend to see things only from my limited, here-and-now perspective…not from God’s perspective. Sometimes I get so caught up in the junk of present circumstances that I don’t see how God is using those situations to shape me into someone who looks more like Him. But I think that’s when I’m the most real and honest with God.
And then I look back on those times where God changed me/transformed me/empowered me/restored me…and I marvel at His grace even more. Our journey with God is something that I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand but God’s teaching me to trust Him in the process.
By: Andy Whisenant on April 8, 2010
at 4:21 PM
I think “process” is the key word there, Andy. It’s all a process.
Thanks for your thoughts.
By: Aaron Shaver on April 8, 2010
at 6:34 PM
So there’s two things that strike me here: the little and big. Little is, things are not what the seem. You think you have a stick, but God can rearrange the atoms before our eyes. Big is, you’re not what you seem. God doesn’t just mess with atoms, he uses people. People like us. In fact, ALWAYS people like us ’cause there aren’t any other options.
By: Steve Grossman on April 8, 2010
at 2:08 PM