Here's a little guide to keep you from getting confused: when I say Moses, I am referring to the Moses of the Bible, and when I say Moses A., I am referring to Moses Abele my Kenyan ministry partner pictured above.
Every now and then in life you come across an incredibly vivid and powerful analogy of Christian living drawn from an everyday life circumstance. Moses A. experienced something like that the first Sunday we were at the Word of Life camp. I was able to hear of his experience when we met together the day after for our first official discipleship time.
Moses A. is a great guy. I really enjoyed getting to know him while in Kenya, connecting with him, sharing struggles with him, and teaching him through my experiences. Moses A. has a natural leadership quality to him. No matter what I think people will always look to him in some way to lead, he cannot hide from it. Yet like all of us there is a reluctance to lead. Some have this reluctance from lack of self-confidence like the Moses of the Bible who five times gave excuses to God for the commission given to him by God (Exodus 3:11,3:13,4:1,4:10,4:13). Moses said, "I am not good enough," and God replied, "I will certainly be with you." Moses said, "The people won't know your name," and God replied, "I AM WHO I AM. They will know my name because they know my faithfulness to them in history." Moses said, "They won't believe that You have really appeared to me," and God replied, "I will give you signs and wonders as proof that I am with you." Moses said, "I cannot speak well," and God replied, "I made your mouth and will give you the words and ability to speak." Moses said, "Please send someone else," and God replied in ANGER yet mercy giving him Aaron for help but still giving His presence and power to Moses. Moses' reluctance to lead was based in his lack of self-confidence which adversely affected His trust in God's power; along with his self-confidence issues, he did not believe the people would even want to follow him - this is based in his thinking of himself as lowly and thinking of the people as un-trusting or unfaithful (not so far from the truth). The problem with both of these thoughts is that they are true by a strictly earthly view, but if you add God and His power into the equation, all things become possible. With God, you become a confident leader and the people become faithful followers. It is good to be lowly and humble in your own sight, but if it gets to the point where you stop trusting in Jesus, His power, and authority, it becomes a problem of unfaithfulness in God to use the lowly.
On that Sunday, Moses A. and the rest of the group had decided to go to the beach for an afternoon swim. The beach area right next to the Word of Life camp was not a good place to swim. Moses A. was the only person in the group at the time that had been there before and he knew of the perfect place to swim. So he was automatically placed as the leader of the group for a while. Moses A. began to lead the group on a 20-minute walk to the best swimming area. After about 10 minutes, some people in the group began to wonder how far this place was and asked Moses A., “Are we close yet?” The area they were walking through was very rocky and there also were a lot of sellers on the beach, which were causing some of the people in the group to get a little uncomfortable. As Moses A. continued leading, he began to doubt himself because the people were complaining, but he knew that where he led them was the perfect place to take them for swimming. He was the only person who had seen how good the place was, and so he pressed on because he knew what was best for the group.
This is exactly what we have been called by God to do every day. The commission that Moses received by God was to deliver His people from Egypt and the commission that we have received by God is to go and make disciples of all nations. We are called to lead people no matter how we feel of ourselves – we are to be humble but not doubt in God’s power to use us. We are to lead people into the glorious relationship with Jesus Christ and then teach people how to ground themselves into a loving and fruitful relationship with their Creator. This will cause some discomfort in the people we are leading, but we must stay focused and continue to lead them because we have seen it is good and it is the very best place for them to go. This is the essence of a shepherd, and exactly what Jesus does with us everyday as we follow Him towards the very best things that He is giving us. For Jesus, the Shepherd, to teach us and grow us, He will cause discomfort so we will walk closer to His side as He leads us. Leadership / Discipleship always begins by being led by Jesus, by being a Disciple of Jesus Christ.
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2 comments:
ben,
this post is so encouraging. its amazing to me how the lord works through others. this post directly spoke to me and reiterates what jenny, the missionary next door, was telling me last night. we were talking about self-worth and my struggle with that, and she encouraged me to study moses' life, doubt, fears and struggles to trust the lord, and to watch how God moved and worked despite this. she was talking to me about humility. what it is. what its not. that we are to be as cast down sheep. unable to get up because of our spindly little legs, lost and stuck on our backs without the lord to flip us over and move us along. i'm rambling now. all this to say, the lord has used this post to speak to me and i'm thankful for you sharing this story. thanks friend.
Thank you Ben. I am a wreck alone, but with the Lord, I can't rightly say "I can't do it." I need to remember this. In the midst of all the craziness going on in my head, it is good to also have a voice of truth. Thank you. Over and over again, God shows his faithfulness to me, and over and over again, I come up with another excuse. Dumb of me. -Faith
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