The story of Moses is a familiar one to a lot of people. Especially consider at least once a year some network runs "The Ten Commandments" during Easter season. Right now I'm actually starting to understand Moses a lot more than ever before.
As many of you know it's been 148 days since I accepted an offer from Bettis to do exactly what I've wanted to do since 7th grade when I taught myself Basic, become a professional programmer. I was told the process could take 4 to 6 months...well it's been almost 5 months, and still no clearance, which is required to being the job, it's the last thing on my requirements list before they actually start to pay me for something that's been a hobby for me since before I grew my first chest hair.
Back to the story of Moses, the man was born to redeem his people from the promised land. He then gets taken into Pharaoh's court and eventually flees to Midian where he lives the life of a shepherd for forty years. At this point Moses was starting to wonder if God's promise was ever going to come true. Some days I feel just like Moses.
We're living almost paycheck to paycheck, juggling when bills get paid based on due date and what our bank account looks like on that date. All with a promise from God that it'll come soon and we'll be taken care of. This job will pay me enough money to cover both my salary and Jaime's currently. In other words, it allows us to do a few things, such as allow Jaime to be the stay at home mom should she choose to, and allow us to discuss having more kids. We cannot have more kids, because doing so would require Jaime to quit her job to take care of them full time. And we rather enjoy living indoors.
Recently, we've (Jaime and I) have been reading "Soul Survivor: Finding Passion and Purpose in the Dry Places: Stranded in the Desert - Alone with God" by Mike Pilavachi. This is a book I've read a few times, and this one passage hit us last night:
The Lord is saying here (Deuteronomy 8:10-14), "Learn to be grateful in the desert. Learn to thank Me for the manna when you wish it were steak. Learn to praise Me for the good land I have given you even though you have not entered it yet, and then when you do prosper you will not forget Me. If you learn the secret of praise and worship when life hurts, then when life is good you will not forget me. (p 33)
God is always closer when he's all you have. God gets all the attention when you wonder how you're going to pay all the bills that month. Or who's going to watch your kids, or can you afford gas for the car, or for the little hobbies you have to break up the monotony of work and sleep. God has been absolutely huge for us this past year since the girls were born. Every need has been met, we have enough money each month, we have more people willing to watch our kids than we have times they need watched. We make an effort to have an evening alone for each of us each week out of the house away from the kids. I have a job I actually enjoy, even though, I have a better one waiting for me.
Therefore I sit in the desert chillaxin with God waiting for the day when the bush lights up (or rather Bettis calls me and says my clearance has completed) and life moves on to the next step.
Now for Moses the next step wasn't directly to the promised land, it was another forty years in the desert, though this time it was doing exactly what God has created him for. I'm not expecting this to be the promised land, starting at Bettis, though I realize that I'll be doing my dream job. I need to make sure that just like Moses, I refuse to move without God leading. After all what good is moving if God is not moving with you?