THE STICK IN YOUR HAND

 

Moses picked it up somewhere along the way. The dead branch of a fallen tree was just the right length and fit his hand

well. It became his walking stick, a staff to prod a slow-moving sheep, a right-sized weapon to smack a slinking

predator.

 

Out one day to recover a wandering sheep, his attention is pulled to a bush that’s on fire. It turns out to be holy ground.

God introduces Himself, and points Moses in a new, vital direction in life. Moses, like most of us, cannot believe this

invitation…and is frankly reluctant to pay the cost of change. There’s fear. There’s awareness of lack of ability. There’s

a whole lot of “what if?”

 

God answers Moses’ question with one of His own: “What is that in your hand?”

 

It’s the stick. Just a dead branch. It’s what Moses had, used, held on to.

 

“Throw it on the ground.” And God made it come alive.

 

Now, aside from the whole snake thing (I hate snakes, especially ones the size of a large walking stick), there’s an amazing side note to this.

 

What was once alive (a branch) became dead (a stick) and God made it alive again!

 

This normal thing, this work-day tool, changed into “the staff of God” when Moses put it on the holy ground before the Lord. It’s not some magic wand, ala Harry Potter. It’s not the stick! There’s nothing in the stick…except God using what a hesitant man had on him.

 

With that stick, God brings 6 of the 10 plagues of Egypt. The Red Sea parts, water flows in the desert, battles are won. With a stick.

 

Each of us comes into proximity of God’s call - great or small - with some fear and trepidation. We aren’t smart enough, don’t speak well enough, can’t persuade enough, won’t believe enough.

 

But we’ve all got “something” in our hand. There’s something which we have which is normal and every-day, something with which we’re comfortable and familiar. Lay THAT thing, that skill, that knowledge, that little bit of dead branch before God. And He makes it come alive.

 

John Eldridge in his book Wild at Heart shares this quote: “Don’t do what the world needs. Instead do that which makes you come alive. For what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

 

What you’re holding on to for security or safety isn’t really all that safe or secure. Lay it down before God. Let Him make it alive. Then do that, and watch how He uses your dead stick for His own perfect purpose.