Column Post by Lakin Easterling
Remember how earlier, I asked you about definitions? About releasing some of them and starting with a leaf of clean paper? How’s it going so far? Are you scared, or angered, at the thought of letting go?
Definitions, good or bad, can start to feel like a security blanket, or that comfortable pair of jeans—maybe not flattering, but you’re used to them, and they’re used to you, and it would be really, really hard to try something different.
Different is described as meaning “partly or totally unlike in nature, form, or quality.” Just think for a moment: how much good could come from something unlikely, something other than those same old definitions we tie to ourselves day after day?
I shared a verse last time, from the book of Exodus, about when God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of captivity. God spoke to Moses out of the form of a burning bush to tell Moses that God saw in him a leader, the kind of person to take His people, of whom Moses was born, on an exodus from enemy country and into their own homeland.
Moses didn’t quite see it that way. He had once been a prince in that enemy country, and had fled after killing a man in a rage. Moses had a speech impediment, and out of that impediment grew a lack of confidence, a lack of charisma and charm and passion—everything someone would need to lead a mass of people.
He was an outcast, an exile, and a wallflower. Moses was being overrun by definitions. He doubted who he was, because of the bindings of all the wrong definitions. He questioned God, “Who am I to go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
God’s response is to define Moses with something different. He said, “But I will be with you…”
Moses, unsure of Who exactly God is but not wanting to offend, asks, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”
To which God answers, “I AM Who I AM.” {Exodus 3}
Do you see what happened?
God defined Moses with Himself. When Moses saw nothing but weakness, God saw possibility. When Moses doubted his own strength, God gave him holy strength. When Moses simply felt unworthy, God gave him the fire of a burning bush—His Own Presence—to make Moses aware that God looked through the definitions Moses carried and saw the true, free man Moses could be. The unbound man. The man loosed from the faded and fitted with grace.
This promise is for you, too, lovely heart. God sees past the things that weigh you down, cuts them loose Himself, and gives you wind to fly far and high and free.
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Lakin Easterling is a wife, mother, writer, and avid reader. She spends her days chasing her toddler, Belle, and conversing with the elderly who are afflicted by Alzheimer’s disease or Dementia. She loves surprise coffee dates with her husband Luke, texting novels to her best friend, Laura Hyers, and being a college student. She dreams about being brave enough to get a tattoo, and believes in the healing power of a good cup of coffee. Her favorite nail polish is Sail Away by Milani. She blogs at http://threadingsymphonies.wordpress.com.
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