Reframe Uncertainty (2): Moses in the Time of Uncertainty

Not enough was the cry of the Israelites in response to the fear of uncertainty threaded throughout the Exodus story. I am not enough was Moses’ knee-jerk reaction to God’s request from a burning bush to lead the Israelites out of captivity. Not enough is ultimately our deepest fear when we encounter the wilderness of the unknown as we journey through life. Maybe right now, as you hold this book in your hands, you fear that you won’t have enough time, food, money, influence, approval, friendships, support—you fill in the blank. What is missing in your life that God is not enough for you? What situations are you attempting to solve with self-reliance instead of reliance on God?
 
Three days after God provides a miracle in parting the Red Sea, ushering the Israelites into safety, that miracle in moments of desperation becomes a faded memento forgotten once stomachs begin growling. In the desert, it was as if the whole community had amnesia when their hunger was unsatiated. “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death” (Exodus 16:3).
 
It is scary to open one’s self to the dark of the divine, giving up control that brings an illusion of safety with it. Mystery can make you hesitant to hope, decidedly prone toward doubt, and more anxious for preferred outcomes. Who am I? Why me? Why now? Those were the first questions Moses asked when God tasked him with leading the Israelites out of slavery and into freedom. And they are the same questions that haunt us when uncertainty flares like a burning bush on the sidewalks of suburban life.
 

- Shelly Miller, Searching for Certainty: Finding God in the Disruptions of Life, 2020.