Exodus 4 has an interaction between Moses and God, with Moses angling to get out of the big task he'd just received. He was dubious about his willingness and ability to lead the people out of captivity in Egypt.

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God told him to throw his staff on the ground. He did, and it turned into a snake. We've actually seen this before - the episode of the the staff being an amazing image of how God can empower someone's normal things and possessions into something amazing.

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But that's not this lesson. This is about the snake.

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The staff-turned-snake is the size of a walking stick. Maybe 4-6 feet long, writhing, hissing, coiling - snakes in that part of the desert have attitude, strength, and poison. Moses, like I would have done, fled from it.

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But God was speaking - "Stretch out your hand and grasp it..." - in Exodus 4:4.

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And while still in mid-sentence, Moses did so. And the snake became a staff again. Then God continued, "that they may believe the Lord."

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Several years ago I started working on a doctorate. I was serving as a senior pastor and wanted to gain more knowledge. It was a great personal challenge, a wonderful learning experience, and revealing of many insights, Bible truths, and character issues. The last part of this particular program was to write a book. Not a "dissertation" per se, but a 50,000-word book. That's a lot of words.

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The snake was lying there...and I fled from it...and God stopped His sentence. 

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For a year that book sat unwritten, the snake's tail ungrabbed. I thought of it. Friends reminded me of it. My wife didn't exactly nag me about it, but her encouragement fell on deaf ears. No one - including me - could understand why I couldn't write it. In some way the answer was simple. It was a big snake, and deep down I was a little afraid of grabbing it by the tail.

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Then 2020 happened, and my two daughter grabbed their own snakes' tails.

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Dotter #1, Deanna, completed a three-year program for a Master's of Fine Arts from Southern Methodist University. She sacrificed some acting roles, struggled and wrestled, and finished with a flourish in May.

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Dotter #2, Kaylea, took on a Master's of Legal Studies from Arizona State University. She earned high mark after high mark while devoting herself to her goal and the learning objectives.

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Not to be outdone by my girls, I reluctantly obeyed God, reached down, felt the scales in my fingers, quivered, and started writing. Suddenly twenty chapters turned to 25, turned to 30. God-whispered sections flew from my heart to my fingers to the page. I turned it in on my birthday.  Two months later, Trinity Seminary called and said it was approved.

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Thus, the picture of my two beautiful daughters, of whom I am immeasurably proud (and not only because they achieved something awesome...but because of who each young woman IS...and they achieved something awesome!). We took a full family day, and toured around San Francisco like a trio of Hogwarts refugees, and I got to wear (and keep) a really cool hat!

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The bottom line, though, was not the achievement. Yeah, I'm now technically a "Doctor of Religious Studies" which, I've learned, does not get you any discounts at Starbucks or preferred parking at the store.

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What it gets you is a delayed completion of God's sentence, but His voice does continue despite our laziness or misplaced fears. The biggest lesson learned? Go ahead and do what He is telling you when He tells you, because others might just believe He is Who He really is as a result.

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And...if God is telling you, inviting you, cajoling you to do  something...

 

Grab. The. Snake. By. The. Tail.

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