Anyone but me Lord
When I was younger, my favorite sport was basketball, growing up in the 80’s & 90’s in Arizona was a frustrating time for a young Phoenix Suns basketball fan. We had a team that wasn’t bad but was never good enough to win the whole thing. When I was 9 or 10 years old my father put up a basketball hoop on the edge of the roof of our ranch home and I spent countless hours out there in the driveway preparing to be the Suns answer to all their playoff woes. I practiced making the game winning free throws with no time left on the clock, but my favorite scenario was the running 3-pointer at the buzzer to win the game by one.
When I got older, I always felt confident in school basketball games to take a stressful shot or last second shot, and the more I played, I ended up making a few of them. However, I can remember when I played baseball my first year, a sport that I had not practiced efficiently & did not feel confident in my abilities, it was the last inning, and we were up by a run with the other team having loaded the bases and I was playing centerfield. All we needed was one out and we win the game. I remember begging God to not let the ball come to me, I had no confidence I would make the catch and feared being the one to let the team down. As fate would have it, the batter would hit a high fly ball to my left that I would have to catch on the run…I did not make that catch. The other team scored & won, and I felt completely dejected.
As I have been spending time reading about Moses and how God calls him into the greatest opportunity of his life and his only responses are, “no way, not me, no one likes or will believe me, please choose someone else.” I am reminded how I felt that day in centerfield, unqualified, incapable, and scared. At this point in Moses’ life, he is past any prime of his youth, he has settled into the day-to-day chores of shepherding his fathers-in-law’s sheep and still carries the guilt of his past. Even the voice of God coming from a burning bush is not enough to convince him that he has what it takes. However, God is patient, God is faithful, & God is powerful. When we let these truths permeate our heart and minds it will change the way we respond to God when He is calling us into our next assignment.
I encourage you to read Exodus 3 & 4, before this Sunday and ask the Lord what He is calling you into.
See you Sunday!
Peace,
Nathan Bentley