But, but, but.....

Excuses, excuses. I've got a million of them - don't we all? "I'd love to help out with the church dinner, but..." "Wish I could be there, but...."
I was reading this morning in Exodus and the story of God talking to Moses. God asks Moses to go to Pharaoh and ask for the release of the Israelites. Moses (who is talking DIRECTLY to God!) starts sputtering excuses. "But they won't believe me"; "but I'm not a good speaker"; and lastly, "God, please pick somebody else to do this."
God got irritated at that point, and I can relate. I have a teenage son who often throws up the same kind of roadblocks when I want him to do something. After the second or third one, I get a little frustrated. Imagine how God felt! He'd given Moses this great staff that turns into a snake when he throws it to the ground. God tells Moses to use that if people don't believe he spoke to God directly. And if they still don't believe, put your hand inside your cloak and when you pull it out it will be all diseased (like leprosy); when you put it back and then remove it, it will be healed. Pretty impressive stuff.
I'm having trouble at this point figuring out why Moses is still objecting to carrying out God's wishes. I'm hopeful that if I was speaking directly to God and he asked me to do something, that I would jump right in.
But would I? How many times have I heard the nudge, the little voice inside me that said "do this" but still ignored it. I can come up with some pretty byzantine reasoning for why I shouldn't - have to go to work now; have to cook dinner; no time; no money - etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Like Moses, I can be pretty stubborn about carrying out God's will, especially when it's going to be difficult or even frightening. But the truth is that when I look back on the moments that I just dove in and did it, without really thinking about the reasons not to, well, those are the moments that I felt closest to God.
"Not my will, but yours," Jesus prayed at his last hours. It's a prayer I need to remember constantly. No buts about it.

So, Jesus nudged my elbow the other day at church and whispered: "Writers write. You write for Christ." I couldn't shake the thought, so I decided that it was time to get this blog started. Here's my favorite scripture right now:

"Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!" REV 7:12

It's an awesome list of astonishing gifts we are given by our God.

What's on your list?