It is a process!!!

How many of you understand the meaning of life?

Oh I know what the church has traditional say… “to love God and enjoy God forever”

But do you understand the meaning of YOUR life?

Do you know what you are here to do?

Where you are headed?

What God has in mind for you?  Specifically ?

There is a story about a person who wants to figure what life is all about.  He has heard that the wisest guru in all of India lives atop India's highest mountain, so the seeker tracks over a hill in Delhi until he reaches the fabled mountain. It's incredibly steep, and more than once, he slips and falls. By the time he reaches the top, he's full of cuts and bruises. But there's the guru, sitting cross-legged in front of his cave.

Oh, wise guru, the seeker says, I have come to ask you what the secret of life is. Ah, yes, the secret of life, the guru says. The secret of life is a teacup. A teacup? I came all the way up here to find the meaning of life and you tell me it's a teacup? The guru shrugs, so maybe it isn't a teacup

Many times we resign ourselves to the fact that we might not get certainty

So then we go to sayings like this…

I know I am not who I want to be

But thank God I am not who I used to be

Comforting ourselves with the fact that perhaps we have learned some lessons along the way…..

And there is truth in that…

I usually think about it this way…

I don’t know what the heck just happened!

I have no idea what is going on

And I don’t have a clue where I am going…. But I am hopeful!!!

The good news is that I can be hopeful

We can all be hopeful

If you are not too sure about that, well think about from the early life of Moses in Exodus 2. 

One thing that is very clear from the life of Moses:   when God is working with us, to get us where we need to be

To get us where we need to go

To get the job done, it is a process!

A wonder, crazy, confusing, but grace full and hope full process

With Moses

What a weird, twisted process it was…

First the birth

Then the rescue

Then… life as a prince

Smooth sailing, right?

Not…

The twist comes, Moses knows his origins, he knows he is a Hebrew

He sees the oppression of his people

And --  it eats at his heart to the point he can’t control himself.

And suddenly we have an act of violence.  Moses kills……

And things start heading a whole new direction.

But we have to note… the process started when the princess picked Moses out of the river.

He had time as a prince… quite a bit of time.  And In that time he learned some things

He learned to be a person of authority,

Perhaps learned some leadership skills

But it is clear he also learned to think of himself as “a power”

As a person who could do what he wanted

Reminds me of some professional athletes in our time….

So he kills the guard

But then  he gets ratted out by his own people, and has to flee

Off he goes, into the deser!

Surely the process is off track, right?  Maybe. 

But god is working, working

Nudging

Guiding

So there he is in the desert

Meets the women at the well

And ends up connected to a bunch of nomads

Probably not Jewish at all.  Not if the names are any indication!

In fact they were Bedouins… Arabs… hmmm

Not necessarily what we would have expected.  But there he is

And he taken by these people, Into their family

So there he is, part of a Bedouin family with what?

Six sister-in-laws… Now that is something.

Can you imagine?

I have to believe that one of the things Moses learned here was humility J

But I also believe he learned how to live, how to survive in the desert as a Bedouin

So now he has some humility

Mixed with his pride

He has leadership and an understanding of power, and its limits

But also a knowledge of how it is to live in the desert

As a Bedouin

See anything here that might come in handy as one leads the people of Israel into the wilderness?

I can correlate this story with my story

I started out as an English/Philosophy major at Whitman.  Not a very useful degree, to be honest,

But I learned, how to read, to interpret, and to write, to express

That was very useful, in seminary and in my work as a minister…. So many tools gained and lessons learned….

And for a while my story just rolled along.  Seemed on track!

But then I had my Moses and the guard moment

I blew it

Blew out

So there I am in the desert.  Feeling pretty lost.  What do I do now?

But I find myself working at NW Medical Teams

Not only does my ministry stuff come in handy, because I am asked to recruit and work with volunteers

But time spent learning to be an EMT when I was in my first church now comes into play

So suddenly there I am, working with international disaster relief work….

Earlier parts of my story helped me in this new part of my story

Then there I am at OHSU.  Lessons learned from ministry and NW Medical Teams enable me to be a part of the faculty there for 10 plus years.  And write a book on Healthcare and Spirituality.  Cool.

God seems to know what God is doing…..

Then, tired of the city I come out here

And I get the chance, because of skills learned as a minister, at NW Medical, at OHSU, to be a part of Wallowa Valley Mental Health, which is now the Center for Wellness….

It’s a process

When God works in our lives

Sometimes I think we expect things to

Just “happen”

Presto, chango…. Its all done

Instant transformation

Clear journey from A to Z

Rarely so…

It’s a process.

Its one step at a time

Its following the breadcrumbs…

It is a matter, as we saw last week

Of God taking whatever is there

And whatever has been

Good bad or indifferent…

And moving us forward….

God can use whatever is there, whatever happens

Whatever choices we make, even our mistakes

To fulfill his intention for our lives…..

Think about your life

The good….

The bad

God has been busy leveraging all kinds of things in your life

Taking them and using them, whether you knew it or not

To move you forward……

But it is always a mystery I think.  You think you are on the way… then wham

Everything falls apart.

You think you have the answers, then suddenly you don’t

You think you have totally blown it, but God takes the pieces, puts them back together, and uses them to move you on to the next thing.

That is the way it is with God

So I guess the question always is this….

What is next?

What is God preparing me for?

What is happening right now, for good or ill

That God is going to leverage, into the next ‘new thing in my life?

What is that next step God is going to ask me to take?

You may think you have it all figured out, and in fact you may have your life planned for the next ten years.   Don’t be so sure that plan is going to play out.

You may think you don’t have a clue.  You may think your life has fallen apart, and there is no next step.  Don’t be so sure.

The main thing is to keep the faith.

Keep looking to God

Keep looking for the breadcrumbs

Keep looking for the next right choice

The next step….

And God will shape your future

And get you were he needs you to be

With the tools you need

To do the task to which you are called.