Never Give Up
What impresses you?
What act or event would so shake you that you would be certain it could only be by the will and power of God? Anything?
Now what if medicine or science could accomplish the same thing? Would you still attribute the event to God?
But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts; so Pharaoh's heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them; as the LORD had said. - Exodus 7:22
In the story of Moses, we see how much of a struggle it is to intimidate and impress Pharaoh. So long as his magicians can turn their sticks into snakes and the Nile into blood, acts performed by Aaron and Moses, he remains unmoved, unwilling to heed to their requests.
This improbable battle of wills is a common theme in Bible stories, where the weak and insignificant, in this case Moses and Aaron, try to win out over the strong and powerful, all for God's glory.
For me, that is the real miracle here, not the wizardry and magic they perform. The act of persisting against insurmountable odds is the message. Faith in God is played out repeatedly, and it isn't diminished by failure. Each time Pharaoh remains hardened in his heart, the faithful go back and try again.
It makes me wonder how many times I would try again. How many attempts to perform an impossible task would I make before giving up?
How many failures does it take to ensure success?
I think that one of the pitfalls of living in an age of instant gratification is the lack of patience we develop. We expect to receive the reward immediately, and when it doesn't come, we are off to another venture or amusement.
We saw that in the leveraged buyout boom of the late seventies, when venture capitalists bought up companies to cut them up and resell the pieces to take a quick profit.
Somehow we saw that as wrong, yet we quickly adopted a similar approach to life on a more global scale. We are constantly looking for ways to make it pay off now, and when it doesn't, we give up and go on.
The missing element in this approach is faith. It is almost as if we don't want it and don't need it. Why bother sticking with something that isn't working? Find a new one, whether that be business, partner, home, or cell phone.
Life is too short to waste time on things that don't work, right?
Now, through all this, there is a glimmer of hope for those of us who see persistence as a virtue. That glimmer is in the eyes of the young girl who takes a simple idea to make bracelets to raise money for sick children and grows it into a movement, or the boy who wrote a book to raise money for a sick friend.
They didn't give up. They had faith and commitment. They persevered.
We don't teach those skills, attributes, talents, and we don't reward them when we find them. Instead, we tell people that the task at hand is impossible. We accept less than the goal, thinking it bad to make demands beyond the reach of our kids, our family, our friends, our congregations, our schools, our government.
Why not take a lesson from Moses and Aaron?
Pick up your staff and go back to Pharaoh with a new plan, another shot, another approach, and never, never, never give up.
More to come...
Image credit: http://www.aquarianradio.com/2013/03/15/moses-sitchins-version-ets-from-nibiru-play-marduks-pharoah-vs-enlils-pawn/moses-aaron-snake-scan0010/