My day whizzed past as I navigated a busy four-lane highway heading back home to Tennessee. After more than a week of working in the wellness clinic and helping with my twin grandchildren, I focused my mind on all I planned to do to catch up. I was gliding along the smooth pavement, passing other vehicles until everything came to a sudden halt. Traffic wasn’t moving. All at once my plans were put on hold. My life (with hundreds of others) was caught up in an unexpected standstill.
You know the kind of standstill I mean. Out of the blue, an event occurs that totally upends all your intentions. One minute you visualize the road ahead of you clearly then–bam! Your world changes in an instant. The cause might be temporary like my traffic snafu earlier this week, but it could be much more consequential. Maybe an accident. A lay-off. The cancer diagnosis. Or the call no parent ever wants to hear in the middle of the night.
But at times the standstill is more gradual. You find yourself stuck in a mind-numbing job with no new opportunities in sight. Night after night, you pray for motherhood, but every pregnancy test comes back with only one line. You can’t help but feel devastated and defeated.
Situations are different but we’ve all been caught up in an unexpected standstill at some point in our lives.
I wonder how Moses might have felt after herding his father-in-law’s sheep in the wilderness for 40 years. Think about his situation for a moment. After Pharoah’s daughter pulled him from a basket in the Nile, she raised Moses as a prince of Egypt. Under his adopted mother’s protection, he lived in luxury with the best education available. His life was on a predictable course until one day, in a fit of anger, Moses killed an Egyptian who was abusing a Hebrew. Life as he knew it was over as he left Egypt to hide in the wilderness.
Forty years is a long time for Moses to be caught up in an unexpected standstill.
The Bible tells us a little about Moses’ life then. He married Zipporah, one of the daughters of Jethro, the priest of Midian, and they had a son Moses named Gershom, which means foreigner. Did Moses feel like an outsider–out of place and out of step with life? Who knows? But his son’s name gives us a hint of what was in his mind until God grabbed his attention with a burning bush.
After forty years of herding sheep, Moses’ life pivoted in a moment when he decided to shift his focus to the burning bush.
Moses chose to turn aside from his typical routine in order to hear God’s call to return to Egypt and free the Hebrew people from slavery. Did the forced pause in his life prepare Moses to listen and then act on this call? And more importantly, do the unexpected standstills in our lives do the same?
What is your burning bush?
What great task or new adventure is God calling you to but right now you’re too busy or too preoccupied on your own path to listen? Instead of railing against your circumstances, ask the Lord what purpose He has in this pause. Maybe He’s asking you to change direction.
Sitting in my car stuck in traffic for four hours is not like herding sheep in the wilderness for forty years. But the message is the same. What are You trying to tell me in this unexpected standstill, Lord? Perhaps my best response comes directly from Moses when God called to him from the burning bush.
“Here I am.” God, You have my attention now. I’m listening.
*To read more about Moses’s story I paraphrased in the post, go to the book of Exodus in your Bible, chapters 1-3.
*Photos courtesy of Canva
Such a thoughtful post, Suzanne. Thank you for reminding me to reflect on God’s purpose for me. When I drove long distances for my job, being caught in traffic snarls was a typical occurrence. Not so much anymore. But we all still have those opportunities to reflect on God’s nudges for us to do something (or refrain from doing something). You’ve reminded us to listen. Thank you.