The man asked, “Who am I, that you would ask me to do this?”
The Lord answered, “I will be with you and this will be a sign for you that I have sent you…”
“But Lord I am not eloquent…I am slow of speech and tongue”
The Lord replied, “who made your mouth?”
The man said, “please, Lord, send someone else”
The anger of the Lord kindled and he said, “Look there is your brother, he can speak well…he shall be your mouth”.
If you read my about me section, you will see that I have my Strengths Finder strengths listed. I have pride in my personality result tests (I love them!) and this one I liked because it nailed areas that I consider strengths of mine. Socially, the strengths-based ideology has spread in the past several years. The premise behind it is that we are most effective when we work within our strengths. It makes sense right? Simply put – know what you’re good at and do it. This line of logic implies the opposite as well: “don’t do or work in the areas that you’re not good at.” For the most part I agree, it’s hard not to, right? If you’re not good at it, doesn’t that increase your chances of failure? And who wants to fail, really?
What happens, though, when we are facing a challenge or calling that is not something we feel confident in? Maybe we can’t see the application of our top five strengths in the task at hand, or maybe we’ve just never done it before, so we’re not sure we can. The Strengths Finder ideology doesn’t really advocate for success when we’re called out beyond our “strengths”.
As the Bible indicates, this was the case with Moses. Above I’ve included a very abbreviated version of the dialogue between Moses and God as God was calling Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt (the full version can be read in chapters 3-4 of Exodus). Moses had never done what God was asking him to do and even recognized that his inability to speak well could affect the work ahead. I find it humorous, now, that God’s response was simply that He made Moses’s Mouth. I mean, who more than the creator would know what Moses could or could not do with that speech impediment? Can you relate?
At one point or another, many, if not all of us, will or have faced a calling or challenge or new job, and thought to ourselves, “God, clearly I can’t do this”? I know I have. Just yesterday I met with one of the pastors at my church to talk about the Prayer Ministry that we’re trying to establish. I was excited during the conversation, but then later started to have what I fondly call “a Moses Moment”. It was one of those times where, facing what I believe God has put before me, I began to think,
“God I can’t do this”.
“God, I’m not creative…I’ll never come up with fun ideas that will get people motivated about prayer”.
“And, who am I to tell anyone how to pray? Do I even know how to pray?”.
“Are you sure you want me?”
As I read the dialogue between Moses and God this morning, I resonated with Moses’s insecurity. I think most of us can. Take note of God’s first response in Chapter 3 vs. 12: “I will be with you, and this shall be a sign for you, that I have sent you”. I think most Christians recognize that while here on earth we are to Glorify God. He wants His truth to be known to the ends of the earth. What I think we sometimes forget (that I had forgotten) is that He also continues to make Himself more fully known to us who already believe. Of course God wants Israel to know him and believe He is who he is, but in this moment, God’s response wasn’t about the others…It was for Moses specifically and the potential growth of God’s reign and truth in his life. In the end, the slight wavering of Moses’s trust in God’s calling brought Aaron into the journey. On one hand, I see that regardless, God’s will was accomplished and the people of Israel came up out of Egypt. On the other hand, I can’t help but wonder if, for Moses personally, there was a depth or insight or connectedness that was missed out on because He insisted that he couldn’t do what God had clearly called him to do. I can only speculate that there was.
I don’t think we’re always called to do things we feel unequipped to do, but in the times that we are, I would challenge us to reflect on Moses’s calling. Just as God made his mouth, so too are we “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). Even better than Gallup is able to identify our strengths or Myers Briggs is able to outline our personality traits, God knows us. The Lord knows what we are really able to do with Him, and as Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “we are His workmanship, created in Christ to do good works, which [He] prepared for us in advance, that we should walk in them.” (ch. 2 vs. 10).
When God calls us, who are we to tell Him He has chosen the wrong person? Look at God’s final response to Moses in Chapter 4…Moses’s disbelief made God angry. I can’t believe that God takes this sort of thing lightly. Clearly our salvation will not be removed when we falter like this, nor will it cause God’s love for us to change (2 Tim 2:13, Ex 15:13, Psalm 13:5 and 33:18). God will still do what He’s going to do in the grand scheme of things. But I also don’t think we should ignore that the scripture indicates that Moses refusal made God angry.
There are times when we jump into things we know we’re good at…there are other times God calls us to serve beyond what we think we have the strength to do or are best equipped to do. In these times, if we trust and are faithful to His calling…we may stumble forward, but we will walk away upright knowing and praising what the Lord has done.
a heart set on pilgrimage 