Do Not Squander Time...

The story of Exodus is a story of a man sent by God to deliver the nation of Israel from the clutches of an evil pharaoh bent on building his own empire.  When I hear people tell me how boring the Bible is I always look at them quizzically.  How can a story about a man drawn from the waters as a mere babe by his enemy's own daughter be boring?  How can a story that builds to a climax better than most Hollywood blockbusters not be read by the people who claim its authenticity?

My Sunday school class recently began to study the book of Exodus.  While it is a familiar story to I'm not sure that we fully engage in what was happening in the life of Moses.  After Moses was rescued from the "ark" by the princess of Egypt, he was raised in two worlds.  He was raised for the first years by his own family in a Hebrew home.  But after he grew into a boy, he was taken to the palace and raised as an Egyptian prince.  I wonder if Moses knew that God had a plan for him.  I wonder if he understood that God was developing him into a man who was supposed to free his people from bondage.  After all, when he saw an Egyptian taskmaster harming a Hebrew, he interceded and killed the Egyptian.  And when he saw two of his kinsmen fighting, he tried to intervene then too.

Whatever illusions of grandeur Moses had up until that time seemed to vanish.  He ran away to Midian to escape from what he had done to the Egyptian.  It seems as though Moses was content to live a life of a shepherd "beyond the wilderness."  It seems as though he figured that he had misunderstood his calling and he was going to simply exist on the fringes of society.  Even when God called Moses back to fulfill his duty, Moses wanted to argue.  He continually looked for excuses as to why he was unable to return to Egypt.

In the movie trilogy The Lord of The Rings, Frodo is called forth to destroy a ring forged from evil.  He is only a simple Hobbit.  He is someone who comes from the least of the beings of Middle Earth.  And yet, he and his friends undertook a most serious quest that had dire consequences.  Here is a scene from the movie where Frodo laments his task, especially since he is being pursued by the previous ring's owner.





Just like with Moses (and Frodo), each one of us is called into a vocation.  Sometimes the calling falls into our lap as it did with Frodo and the ring.  Sometimes the display of a burning bush illuminates the darkness around us drawing us to it so that we can receive our marching orders.  But usually our calling slowly matures within us.  It grows out of who we are...who God builds us to be...and who we need to be at that moment in time.

Gandolf tells Frodo, "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."  As humans, our time is limited.  As the children of God, we are called into a life of service and ministry built on the foundation of love.  But what we have to decide is what we will do with the time that is given us.  Will we go forth like Moses and defeat the odds or will we choose to remain beyond the wilderness because we are frightened of our calling?

Until next time...

+May God the Father give you strength to fulfill the calling of Christ through the Spirit's activity in your life.  Amen

"Do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of."--Benjamin Franklin

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