One of my all-time favorite games to play as a kid was Kick the Can. Basically, there is one person who is "it," and everybody else hides. Once you're found, you have to go to the "prison" (base) and hope and pray that someone rescues you by touching the can or ball before the person who's "it" does.
Playing the game, I remember hiding and the feeling of not wanting to leave my spot. I didn't want to risk being found or caught and then have to take the walk of shame to the porch. But I also remember feeling a stronger pull to get up and rescue some people. Hiding always felt like a waste of time, like I was missing all the excitement. Every once in a while someone would be hidden so well that a couple games would go by and they wouldn't even realize it. They couldn't hear everyone screaming that the game was over and everyone who was caught was rescued. That was the worst feeling, and it happened to me at least once or twice.
I love the story of Moses and the burning bush experience. Moses has led his flock a little farther than usual. He finds himself at Mt. Sinai when he notices a bush that's burning but...not burning. He's amazed at what he's stumbled upon and the fact that the bush is engulfed in flames but is not being consumed. And the text reads that when the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look God called to him from the middle of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" Moses then replied, "Here I am." And the Lord said, "Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals because the ground you're standing on is Holy." When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.
The story then continues with God trying to convince Moses that he can do what He's asking him to do, but Moses keeps pleading with God to ask someone else. Notice God's response in Exodus 4:14, Then the Lord became angry with Moses. "All right," he said. "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he speaks well. And look, he is on his way to meet you now..."
Is it possible that we've been hiding behind a burning bush? Has the very thing that once drew you close, that amazed you, now become a hiding place? Has the Voice that once spoke from the middle of your heart become faint? When God asks you to take off your shoes, do you nestle your toes deeper into them? Have you forgotten that the ground you're walking on is holy; that the same power that once caused your heart to burn is the very same power that will enable you to do what He's invited you to do?
You see, we all have a burning bush experience. The question is, What are we going to do with it? Will we believe that the power that drew us to it can lead us out? Or will we go for second best and ask for someone else to do it while we hide behind our securities, insecurities and comforts? Sometimes we think that God is just waiting on us - that things can't get done unless we say yes. But as we see with Moses, God will find someone who will. What's amazing to me is God's patience with him. Even with Moses' refusal to cooperate with the original plan, God sets him up with a Plan B. It's not Plan A, not the best, but still a plan nonetheless.
The miracle in this story isn't the burning bush. It's the God of the Universe choosing to work through a human being to accomplish His will. It's the same miracle happening today in everyone who accepts the offer. We have now become the burning bush. God has chosen to live inside of us, and He speaks to us from the middle, from our spirits. Unlike the bush in the story we are to be consumed by him, and as we are, we experience true life.
May we say yes to the Plan A's and believe and trust in him to do what we can't. May we not see our relationship with God as something to hide behind, but as an invitation to rescue as many people that land on our porch as possible. May we realize that the ground we're walking on is holy, and may that revelation change how we walk and the direction that we travel. May we not come to the end and find out that we missed the game.
Burn, baby, burn.
Playing the game, I remember hiding and the feeling of not wanting to leave my spot. I didn't want to risk being found or caught and then have to take the walk of shame to the porch. But I also remember feeling a stronger pull to get up and rescue some people. Hiding always felt like a waste of time, like I was missing all the excitement. Every once in a while someone would be hidden so well that a couple games would go by and they wouldn't even realize it. They couldn't hear everyone screaming that the game was over and everyone who was caught was rescued. That was the worst feeling, and it happened to me at least once or twice.
I love the story of Moses and the burning bush experience. Moses has led his flock a little farther than usual. He finds himself at Mt. Sinai when he notices a bush that's burning but...not burning. He's amazed at what he's stumbled upon and the fact that the bush is engulfed in flames but is not being consumed. And the text reads that when the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look God called to him from the middle of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" Moses then replied, "Here I am." And the Lord said, "Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals because the ground you're standing on is Holy." When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.
The story then continues with God trying to convince Moses that he can do what He's asking him to do, but Moses keeps pleading with God to ask someone else. Notice God's response in Exodus 4:14, Then the Lord became angry with Moses. "All right," he said. "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he speaks well. And look, he is on his way to meet you now..."
Is it possible that we've been hiding behind a burning bush? Has the very thing that once drew you close, that amazed you, now become a hiding place? Has the Voice that once spoke from the middle of your heart become faint? When God asks you to take off your shoes, do you nestle your toes deeper into them? Have you forgotten that the ground you're walking on is holy; that the same power that once caused your heart to burn is the very same power that will enable you to do what He's invited you to do?
You see, we all have a burning bush experience. The question is, What are we going to do with it? Will we believe that the power that drew us to it can lead us out? Or will we go for second best and ask for someone else to do it while we hide behind our securities, insecurities and comforts? Sometimes we think that God is just waiting on us - that things can't get done unless we say yes. But as we see with Moses, God will find someone who will. What's amazing to me is God's patience with him. Even with Moses' refusal to cooperate with the original plan, God sets him up with a Plan B. It's not Plan A, not the best, but still a plan nonetheless.
The miracle in this story isn't the burning bush. It's the God of the Universe choosing to work through a human being to accomplish His will. It's the same miracle happening today in everyone who accepts the offer. We have now become the burning bush. God has chosen to live inside of us, and He speaks to us from the middle, from our spirits. Unlike the bush in the story we are to be consumed by him, and as we are, we experience true life.
May we say yes to the Plan A's and believe and trust in him to do what we can't. May we not see our relationship with God as something to hide behind, but as an invitation to rescue as many people that land on our porch as possible. May we realize that the ground we're walking on is holy, and may that revelation change how we walk and the direction that we travel. May we not come to the end and find out that we missed the game.
Burn, baby, burn.
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