Moses Calling

 

Last Sunday, we heard how God called Moses from a burning bush.  I invite you today to light a candle, feel the warmth of the flame, watch the flame dance with the air currents, maybe smell the scent of the candle, and ask yourself, “Where/Who/Why is God calling me?”

 

Notice the three parts: where is God calling you?  Might be to a particular place or setting ~ or just to be present to your life.  Who is God calling you to be ~ because God is never finished with us.  Finally, why is God calling you?  This might be the hardest to answer, but worth time and energy to consider.  As with all questions, these are not one and done.   

 

So often as we live the questions of life we race and run toward answers, we wrestle solutions and get frustrated when we can’t figure something out.  Yet, the best questions rarely have easy answers or quick solutions.  As Rainer Maria Rilke said, “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

 

I know such a stance is not popular.  We prefer every problem be solved, every brokenness repaired, and every cobweb in the corner be cleared away forever and ever.  The uncertainty, the un-solvability, the messiness of life can just needle at us.  We think we should be able to resolve everything. 

 

To live the questions now…so that some distant (note that word) day we might (without even realizing it) live into the answer…this is the invitation.  Remember Moses ran away from Egypt, settled into a life, and by most accounts was close to 80-years-old before that burning bush moment.  It takes a lifetime.  Even when Moses was called, he was uncertain that this was the best career move.  “Me?  Um, God, You’ve got the wrong shepherd.  You must be looking for someone who doesn’t stutter or stumble or have a criminal record.” (Remember Moses had killed a guard).  God apparently isn’t impressed by perfection – then or now.  God apparently doesn’t need someone who has it all together or figured out or even is the best speaker.  God apparently doesn’t require us to have all the right degrees.  God receives us as we are and invites us to be caught up in what God is doing now. 

 

Not that we will get it right…Moses stumbles along the way.

Not that we will get to do it all…Moses never put his pinkie toe in the Promised Land or tasted the refreshing milk or sweet honey.

Not that we must be perfect…Moses gets upset and wants to quit several times.

 

Yet, God calls us still today.  What does that candle burning bright before you today long to say?  What is that question you are seeking to live? 

 

Please pray with me: God, we are not sure why You call us, but we give thanks that in this day there are so many ways we can share and shine our light.  There are countless places that hunger for Your light of love.  Let this flame before me re-kindle our commitment to let Your divine spark embodied in us shine through our words and actions.  Let each of us echo Moses saying, “Here I am, God, send me.”  Amen.