The Educator

The Unexpected Hero

Imagine being a twentysomething who lives in the middle of nowhere and who receives the call of God.  Think about a mundane day in which you are going to your job or college, listening to your Ipod, surfing your favorite social network, eating at your favorite restaurant, and out of nowhere the call of God comes to you.  In the midst of your fears, insecurities, and low self-esteem, God comes and makes himself real to you.  He tells you that He has an amazing plan for you and that He is going to help you meet the needs of suffering people; you are truly about to do something great.  You feel that you are unworthy and that maybe God could have chosen someone much smarter or more creative than you.  Many of us as twentysomethings feel this way.  If we were completely honest with ourselves, we would probably say that we deal with a lot of emotional insecurities and mind games on a daily basis.

There is a man in the Bible who felt the same way about the call of God.  Maybe you have heard of him–his name was Moses.  Though not a twentysomething (he was more like a fortysomething) he received the call of God on a mundane day.  There was nothing special about neither that day nor the circumstances surrounding the event.  Moses was just doing his job…tending the sheep on the backside of the desert.  Sometimes I wonder what was going through Moses’ mind as he worked with the sheep by himself in the desert.  A young man who was once a prince of Egypt was now an aging fortysomething doubting that God could do anything with his life.  The Bible even says in Exodus chapter 4 that Moses had developed a stuttering problem in the desert, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”  This discovery causes us to wonder how Moses had developed this speech impediment.  There was no evidence of Moses stuttering whenever he was in Egypt.  Could it be that Moses started stuttering because he didn’t believe in himself anymore?  Maybe he thought he was now a nobody who would live out the rest of his life in regret and solitude.  Many twentysomethings battle with the same feelings and thoughts.  We think things like, “I feel so insecure.  Will anyone listen to what I say?” or “Who would want to follow someone like me.  I’m just going to stay in obscurity.” 

The problem with this type of thinking is that it is focused on who we are instead of who God is.  In the desert, Moses dealt with the same insecurities and God began to give him some answers.  In response to Moses’ doubt and insecurities, God responds in Exodus 3: “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”  What an incredible statement!  God was saying to Moses that his insecurities and fears did not matter in the story that was about to unfold in his life.  God tells Moses that He would be with him.  God was with him and he no longer needed to worry and be afraid.  It was no longer about Moses anymore; it was about the creator of the universe unfolding His plan through a man.  Many twentysomethings are so focused on themselves that they fail to see the greater picture of what God is trying to do in their lives.  We get focused on ourselves… my style, my Ipod, my car, my clothes, my friends, my relationships, my education, my career, my money.  It is so easy to get wrapped up in self-centeredness and selfishness when we are only thinking of ourselves, but this is where God comes in.  In the middle of our insecurities and self-centeredness, God comes in and shows us who He is and what He wants us to do to further His plans.   It is no longer about us anymore; we are no longer caught up on our own story.  Our focus turns to a greater story–a story that has God as the focus.  Only when we turn our attention to God’s plans and his purposes can we truly live out the life that He has for us.