Exodus: Why is this so hard anyway?

Robert Reid is a former missionary to Portugal. He is an exceptional man whose ministry was very blessed. Robert has cerebral palsy and needs help with most daily functions. Due to his external deficiencies, many people were not inclined to support his ministry. Often people questioned his desire to be a missionary. One day when we were talking, Robert said, "When I get to heaven, I want to ask God, 'why was it so hard to do what you wanted us to do anyway'"?

Great question. Why is it hard to get church committees to trust Jesus more than the budget? Why is it hard for Christian institutions to accept Christian norms rather than societal norms? Why is it so hard to help people walk closer to the Father even after they said they want to do so? Basically, when there is a clear vision for what is good, why does it seem that God doesn't jump in to clear away the obstacles? Closer to home, why is it so hard for me to walk faithfully when times are hard?

Surely Moses thought the same thing. He had a clear call from God, was given the needed resources for success, and was sent to liberate God's people. The next thing you know, everything went wrong. Pharaoh made the Israelite's life miserable and they turned on Moses. In Exodus 5 they told him, “May the Lord look on you and judge you!” Then in chapter 6 when he passed on an encouraging word from God, "they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor." And very likely the first three plagues affected both Egyptians and Israelites alike. Not exactly the greatest start to a ministry.


In the one year reading plan I'm following, today's reference in the New Testament was Jesus and Peter walking on the water in Matthew 14. I wonder if Jesus purposefully sent the apostles onto the sea knowing that the storm would hit them squarely in the face? Did he want them to have to struggle all night before he showed up? Was it part of his plan?

It seems that the Father uses storms - human, political, natural - to stack the odds and make it clear who is really at work. The issue then becomes how do I respond to storms - especially those that stop us from doing what God asked us to do anyway? Do I see them as moments when the Father may show up? Do I stay the course? Or do I become like the other Jewish leaders who complained and actually turned against Moses - and therefore against God.

Genesis: Wrestling with hard times

Jacob is an amazing person. He deceives his brother twice, his father once and tries to cut a deal with God after seeing a vision. I've always wondered how God felt when he promised to give Jacob thousands of descendants and all the land he could see only for Jacob to respond with "I'll give you 10% back." Seems a little anticlimactic to me; yet the Father didn't give up on him. Rather God led Jacob to Laban who conned the young con. Imagine working seven years for a bride only to have the dad switch daughters at the last minute. Is it any wonder that the relationship between Jacob and Laban was a little strained?

So when Laban caught up with the fleeing Jacob (Genesis 31), a rather interesting conversation followed. Jacob complained that he suffered heat by day, cold by night, worked 14 years for his wives, 6 for his flocks, had his wages changed 10 times and would have been poor if God had not intervened. Laban responded that all the wives, children and flocks were technically his anyway. The next chapter is the famous scene of Jacob wrestling all night with what turns out to be an angel - an angel powerful enough that he could have beaten Jacob at any moment. Jacob finally realized what  happened when he proclaimed, "I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared."

My question is whether these are indeed the same story? Not chronologically but metaphorically. What does it look like today when we wrestle God? Maybe it looks like frustrating life conditions, unfair treatment and the feeling that only by God's mercy are we not totally depraved. Maybe Jacob's life with Laban was really a prolonged wrestling match with God. Was God trying to teach Jacob something? Temper him? Grow him?

So what do my wrestling matches look like? Is frustration on my job or hard times in my family actually God at work, wrestling to get through my defenses and teach me something? Is unfair treatment his attempt to grow me? Is frustration for my benefit? And what will it take for me to realize this? To come to my senses and understand what the Father is doing to, in and for me?

Jacob limped away a new person from the wrestling match; he entered the fight as Jacob but left as Israel. Surely I will wrestle with God and/or life again, the question is will I leave as a new person or simply with a limp to add to my list of complaints?

Mark 4:26-41; The Faith Question

The contrasting questions are interesting. The apostles ask Jesus (God), "Don't you care if we drown?" He asks them "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
"Do you care?" is answered with "Do you have faith?"

I think the same conversation is still going on today. I hear myself asking God is he cares about my friends who are suffering, my family struggles and my major decisions. I can only imagine that he is asking back "Do you still have no faith?"

The silence of God bothers us. We want answers before the problems come so that we avoid the problems. We want him to act as the problems first start to build, not wait until they are flowing in over the side and about to swamp us. We want him to act so that we don't have to have faith.

Yet if Schwietzer was right when he said that "relationship is the only thing", then instead of concern for X situation, my concern should be about God in X situation. What does he want from me in this moment? What do I need to do in this circumstance to honor him? How do I demonstrate faith in him now? How do I act so that he won't ask me again, "Do you still have no faith?"