Seasons: Extra/Ordinary

We've looked at Moses the last few weeks, at the many spiritual seasons of his life.  This week we'll take a look at his most ordinary/extraordinary time of life.  Does that sound familiar?  Extra/Ordinary?

God finds a man who shares his holy anger over Israel's slavery.  God sends that man out to a desert where his anger can be molded, refined and where rescuing skills are learned.  Then it's time, and God sends Moses back to Egypt.

You probably know the story: miracles, plagues, staffs that become snakes, a Hebrew man who speaks for the living God, a Pharaoh who finally says "Go", an Israelite hoard followed by an Egyptian army, a pillar of fire, a parted sea.

Extraordinary.


And then wandering the desert for 40 years.  True, there is miraculous food every day; there are still face to face encounters between God and Moses in a dusty tent; the pillar of fire still guides them; sandals do not wear out.

This extraordinary is juxtaposed with the ordinary.

Children whine, neighbors disagree, women gather breakfast, tents are packed, bags are loaded, the walk begins, and camp is set up another night.

Ordinary.

Are you, like Moses caught up in a whirlwind of extra/ordinary?

Are you mothering children, who surprise you with new experiences every day - learning new things, asking you questions you'd never think to ask, braving their classrooms every day with courage?

Are you doing your third load of laundry for the day?  Wiping noses?  Filing ANOTHER report? Making the commute to work - just like the day before, and the day before, and the day before?

Are you experiencing God's miraculous power in your marriage?  Maybe it's simply that you're still married.  Maybe you have a comfortable joy with your spouse.  Extra/ordinary.

Like Moses, do you find yourself 20 years into the VERY THING you desired in your youthful passion, only to find it mundane and tiresome after years on repeat? Are you feeling like a broken record?  The same old song over and over again.  Are you ready for a new adventure?  Do you feel stuck in the exact cycle you praised God for when it started?

Moses desired to see Israel's freedom  He got to bring it about, and then spent the next 40 years preparing them to live abundantly in that freedom.  But here's the thing...

Moses never went into the Promised Land with Israel.

The very thing Moses prepared Israel for, he never experienced himself.  That's the catch about the extra/ordinary life - the GREAT thing we see on the horizon usually isn't for us. 

This. Is. Parenting.

As Amy Carlson commented a few weeks ago:

"While wading through laundry, never losing my grip on my calendar, and navigating hormones and growth spurts (did we grow out of those shoes or just lose them?), this is a season where I must fight to remember that my daily tasks are not my goals. My tasks fill my day, but they are circumstantial. In the midst of them, I am training. 

Personal hygiene, homework habits, relational skills... yes. Virtues... yes. Trust in the one faithful God, whose call is a whisper and whose reward is both present in joy & peace, and eternal... yes. I am training little sinners to be followers of Christ. Followers who are, after all, still sinners, but with hope and forgiveness as children of God. Children with the power of the living God at their fingertips and His love in their hearts, if they can remember that He is with them."

We have this end goal in mind: grown children - living independently and loving the Lord.  The thing is, in a whirlwind they will move out of the house before this goal is finished.  We'll have phone calls, emails and college breaks to try to decipher where our kids are at.  How are they living?  How are they loving?  Meanwhile, of course, God will continue what He's started with us.  Someday, we'll step in our adult children's homes and experience the life they've created, the life they've decided to live; and we'll get glimpses of who we raised.  But even then, we'll be visiting.  We won't be there when they make up with their spouse while brushing their teeth.  We won't see them encourage a friend's marriage over coffee.  We won't be peering over their shoulders when they write checks to give sacrificially.  Like Moses, we'll be sending them off to that promised land unaccompanied.

And of course, that is the very extra/ordinary task of parenting.  The  everyday.  The eternal.  The right now. The forever.  The basic mixed with the bold.

Maybe there's something else you see on the horizon: a promotion,  an accolade, a marriage, a family.

Like Israel, some of those good, good things are in store for us.  But maybe, like Moses, you're in a shepherding season, and the destination is not about you.

If so, be encouraged.

Moses never set foot in the Promised Land...until Jesus knelt on a mountain top and prayed.  Matthew 17 says that Elijah and Moses appeared and spoke with Jesus as he prayed at His transfiguration.

Moses DOES see the Promised Land, but it's not while he's living.  He sees it from eternity, visiting his Savior on a mountain top.  He sees the Promised Land filled with Israelites once again needing salvation.  He sees salvation kneeling before him.

You may not see the Promised Land of your shepherding season.  You may not know all the details of your kids' lives.  You may see what looks like a mess, what looks like failure.  You might send them out thinking "There's no way they're going to make it.  There's no way they're ready for this.  There's no way they will take God with them."  But don't lose heart.

Like Moses, there are some things we don't see until eternity.