Intentionally On Purpose

When I started graduate school my first class was about speaking intentionally. Each comment we stated and each question we asked as counselors was supposed to have purpose and meaning. Everything we said and everything we did from the way we sat in the chair to way we nodded our head was supposed to assist in leading the client in the direction to find the answers they were looking for in counseling. Now I like to think that I'm a good counselor, but I know One better. He's the only Counselor I know that says everything He says and does everything He does on purpose. He even left us His Book and you can rest assure that every word, every comma, and every period He placed in there intentionally. However, it's up to us to find that same meaning and purpose in our own lives through His Word and recently I had a unique experience while trying to do just that.

Now in the past year I have had to deal with some serious changes in my life. The details aren't relevant but I will say that I found myself in a place physically, emotionally, and spiritually and I couldn't understand why I was there. So I petitioned God for understanding. However, when He told me why I wasn't trying to hear Him. Typical, SMH (shaking my head). Turns out I'm not the only one though... 'ol dude Moses did the same thing way back in the day. Now initially when God admonished me and told me that I was acting like Moses I didn't know what that meant so I decided to investigate. Turns out in this instance looking like Moses is not a good look...

Moses was an amazing prophet. God spared his life as a child and he was blessed to grow up as an Egyptian prince. With God's help he lead his people out of captivity and performed the great miracle of parting the Red Sea. God gave him the Ten Commandments. However, like all of us, Moses had flaws.

I'm gonna just tell you what happened first. (Feel free to read Exodus 3 &4 on your own because as always this is my interpretation of scripture not King James Version.) In Exodus 3, we find Moses chilling in the field taking care of his sheep when all of a sudden he sees this burning bush. Now it's weird to him because the bush is on fire but it's not being burnt up. So he walks over to the bush to see what's up and then God starts calling his name from the bush. Moses answers Him and God tells him to take off shoes because the place that he was standing was holy ground. Moses gets scared and hides his face but God starts talking to him about why He is there. He explains to Moses that He wants Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt into a place flowing with milk and honey. Moses responds that he ain't nobody to be trying to bust in on Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out captivity. God reassures Him that He will be with him and He tells him that a sign will be that when the people are delivered they will worship God on the same mountain that He was talking to Moses on at the time. Then Moses asked, "Well who am I supposed tell them sent me?" God responded, "I AM WHO I AM," then told him exactly what he was to say, what he was to do, and how Pharaoh would respond when he did it. Even after God gave him two more signs by turning his staff into a snake and then back into a staff and then making his hand leprous and then making it clean again Moses continued to reject his calling and make excuses. He complained that He wasn't a good speaker and God reminded him that He was the same God who created his mouth so surely He could help him speak well and give him the things that he needed to say. Moses still begged Him to send someone else and at that point God got angry but offered to allow him to take his brother Aaron with him so that Aaron, who was a better speaker, could speak and Moses could tell him what to say. Finally, after 5 times of going back and forth with God and making excuses Moses accepted his calling.

Now if I could have spoken to Moses immediately after reading these two chapters my response would have went something like this, "Come on bruh. How you just gon' be playing games with God like this? Dude God showed up at yo house! He didn't even send an angel, He came Himself! Dude God actually came down and spoke to you. Do you even understand how freakin' awesome that is!?! You trippin bruh. You trippin'. First of all, you life ain't even all that tight right now. I mean yeah you have a wife and some kids but you're out here dealing with sheep. Your life is not all of that so why wouldn't you want to go on an adventure with God. He already said He would hook you up and think about how many people you would help. Plus He just showed you all these signs so you know He had the power. He specifically came and asked for you too. You should be honored, not making excuses. Then think about how famous you will be and He will be after all of this. 'Don't you want to go, where everybody knows your name? And they're always glad you came. Don't you want to be where you can see that yall's troubles are all the same. Don't you want to be where everybody knows your name?" (I'm sure that would have been the most "hood" conversation Moses ever had, and that he definitely would not have recognized the Cheers theme song. Actually, depending on how old you are you might not recognize the Cheers theme song, LOL.)

As I was going off on Moses in my mind God quickly showed me that I was being a hypocrite. Just as He had showed up in Moses's life He had shown up in mine and although He had not spoken to me through a burning bush He spoke to me through His Holy Spirit, which was just as relevant. Also, in so many ways He has shown me what I need to do and how I need to do it but I have been resistant coming up with so many excuses about how I'm not good enough and encouraging Him to find someone better for the job. It's so easy for me to sit back and hate on Moses because I see the end result of all the wonderful things that God accomplished through his life, therefore to me it seems crazy that Moses didn't immediately jump on the bandwagon with God's plan. However, if God accomplished all of that back in the day with Moses, how much more can He accomplish with me today.

Now I recognize the error in my ways and I vow to have no more excuses. I have to live my life intentionally on purpose and "run on to see what the end's gon' be." Now I know yall are good Christians who always obey immediately when God tells yall something (LOL), and I know yall have never behaved like me and ol' Moses (wink, wink) but I'm just wondering...

What yall know about that?

What yall know about that?

I know all about that.

(Now if Moses doesn't know anything about Cheers, he definitely ain't go know nothing about T.I., LOL).

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