Hey Ladies,
I’m borrowing this post from my good friend Mary…she sent this over to me today and asked if I would take a look at it for her – of course – I said I’d love to! When I read it, I felt like it struck such a chord with me. I know sometimes it feels like what we are doing is ordinary, and isn’t causing a stir anywhere…so I love the perspective she offers here…much love ladies, Laurie
“I’m sure there are many of you who may have no idea what “the red sea experience” is in reference to, so to start a little history. It is the location in the Bible where a climax of epic proportion takes place. The main characters in the story are a man named Moses, an Egyptian Pharaoh, a people group of nearly a million (the Israelites), and God of course – after all it is his book.
Ok, here is the story in a nut shell. Moses has an encounter with God in the desert. He is told his people are being greatly oppressed by the Egyptian Pharaoh. Moses is asked, really more like commanded, by God to approach the ruler and demand his people be released. Pharaoh is adamantly opposed to the request: no surprises there but finally caves after 10 different pleas from Moses, which actually was the result of the increasingly disgusting plagues that fell upon Pharaoh’s people with each one of his refusals.
The newly freed people make their way through the desert en route to their new home, appropriately named the “Promised Land”, when Pharaoh experiences seller’s remorse and sends his army to fetch the million person labor pool back home. Moses gets wind of the plan and knows it’s impossible to hide a million in the dessert, so with no place left he heads for the Red Sea and ultimately into a miracle for the ages….Just picture it, Moses, an old dude with a white beard and staff, standing at water’s edge, arms outstretched and raised, sea spray in face, crying out to heaven above for the impossible and the impossible happens! A gale force wind pushes back the water and a way out is created for the people on the run.
I just have one question…Why doesn’t this ever happen in my life? I mean really, where is the drama! The people who mess with me aren’t getting warts from frog invasions, drinking bloody water or having their flower beds eaten up by locusts….(fyi…those were just 3 of the 10 plagues, gross right!) I don’t know about you but I haven’t had any sea part and dry land appear for Ms. Mary to walk on by!!!
Come to think about it, I haven’t taken any SOS calls from God either. It’s more like a call from a friend of friend who is in need. It doesn’t involve the masses; it’s usually just for a few and in most cases, just one, which really doesn’t warrant much media coverage. The plea is never to provide a flashy medical procedure that could actually save a life or provide an escape from imminent danger. No way…nothing that special - but to be honest, I don’t think I know any life saving techniques, but that’s beside the point. It’s more like the mundane tasks like providing a meal, a ride to and from or even the more menial are the joys of grocery shopping or cleaning someone’s house – which always includes a toilet of two. No exotic plagues here…just the plain, unimportant, ordinary stuff of life.
I know what you might be thinking at this point, the last time you looked at me, I wasn’t Moses! I get that but does it make my red sea experience any less meaningful for the person I encounter. Does a ride to and from provide a type of freedom or a “way out” when there doesn’t seems to be one. Is a hot meal delivered to someone at the dinner hour just as miraculous as manna dropping out the sky…if you don’t know that part of the story, you’ll just have to read the unedited version in the book of Exodus. When we grocery shop or clean up someone else’s mess, do we believe we are alleviating some type oppression, goodness knows that’s how I view housework and cooking. I think it could be the same, but it’s really so vanilla, if you know what I mean…
I just had a new thought as I was writing this, God was doing for Israelites what they could not do for themselves, which was spectacular and unbelievable and that is exactly what He is asking of us which makes all those boring, mundane and menial tasks spectacular in the eyes of God. Now that adds a touch of drama, don’t you think?”
