God calls Moses by using a burning bush to catch his attention. God then gives Moses a mission and assures him that God will accompany him. He affirms a rather anxious and nervous Moses that he will be empowered to accomplish his divinely-appointed purpose. God will also give him the power he needs to succeed in his mission.
God calls us – but that is never the end of the story! God also sends us; just as Moses was sent on a mission, God also sends us. God invites us, ordinary people, to surrender who we are, our gifts and talents, to what we can do for God.
There might be another important lesson for us in the calling and sending of Moses. It is our availability and not our ability that matters. Moses doubts his ability. God isn’t worried about that. First and foremost, God asks Moses to be available to say yes. When we think that we can carry out the calling of God on our own, when we rely on our own ability, we miss out on so much of what might be possible and often do not succeed in what we have set out to do.
Moses also discovers, as he lives the mission that God gives him, that he has to surrender to God all he is and can do, over and over. God will use Moses in as far as he surrenders. As Moses surrenders more and more on the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, he not only allows himself to be formed by God but realises that he has less and less control over his life. He also realises, through the
ups and downs, that God is in control and is with him.
In other words: when you surrender who you are, what you’ve got, and what you can do to God, you have no idea or control over what God might do with it, but, in the end, all will work out for you. God has a way of working that, many times, we don’t understand. Yet, despite our lack of comprehension and perhaps even our hesitation – if from God – it will bear fruit in the way that God
desires.
Lent invites us to listen to God’s call, respond to that call and let go so that we too can be sent on God’s mission. We, like Moses, may not be confident or feel assured, yet God still calls and sends.
Take time today to consider your own call. What is God asking of you at this moment in your life? How is God leading you now? What mission might God be asking you to embark upon? How do you feel about that? Talk to God today about your call, response and mission.
