When a career
is replaced by a bot, a church splits due to irreconcilable differences over
theology, a friendship dissolves in betrayal, and livelihood is compromised by
a health diagnosis, self-protection is our knee-jerk reaction. It is human
nature to turn inward, self-reflect, and assess current uncertainty through the
lens of our circumstances. But God requires something different from us. Look
up and make eye contact with him amid the disruptions of life.
Exiled from his
own people, perhaps Moses was looking for proof that he was worthy of love and
belonging too, as he watched an Egyptian beat up a Hebrew, a man who could’ve
been his distant relative. What provoked him to watch his people endure the
ravages of hard labor? What question might he have been trying to answer? What
false narrative had he made into truth? Moses chose murder over love. How might
his actions been different had he chosen to look up rather than out?
Because God was
watching the Hebrews too. But his response was compassion and liberation,
freedom from captivity. Ironically, God chose Moses to lead his own people into
freedom, a man prone toward self-reliance rather than relying on God. They
watched. Both Moses and God were watching the same people from different
perspectives. The Egyptians could’ve been wiped out in a breath, but God
offered the choice of response first. What are you watching?
- Shelly Miller,
Searching for Certainty: Finding God in the Disruptions of Life, 2020.
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