From the Pulpit: From bad to worse
It was several years ago now, sometime in October. You know the season; days can be beautiful or there can be horizontal snow. We had some family visiting us for a couple of days from Kansas City. They planned to leave for home on Sunday after church. There were some weather reports that predicted snow, but here in southeastern South Dakota the weather was in the high 60s, no wind – just very nice!
Our relatives loaded their little Honda Civic and headed home about 2 p.m. for their easy, five-hour drive home. About Sioux City, it started to snow, and it snowed hard – with wind. They made it past Omaha about 20 miles but then the freeway closed. They thought it was no problem; they had front wheel drive and would just take back roads.
The snow got deep, it was hard to see the road, signs, or anything. Cell directions didn’t necessarily make distinctions between gravel and paved roads, but regardless, it was dark with white-out conditions. Thankfully, a giant snow blower appeared in front of them – perfect! They followed him for a long time … until he got stuck.
Passing the snowplow, they figured they were somewhere in southwest Iowa. They rarely saw another car and would go on to get stuck a couple of times. Their five-hour drive turned out to be more like … 14-plus hours. Talk about going from bad … to worse!
In the beginning chapters of Exodus, we see God’s hand of protection on Moses. After being adopted as a baby into the Pharaoh’s house, he became well educated – nothing was out of his reach.
Around the age of 40, Moses fled Egypt, becoming a fugitive and shortly thereafter a shepherd in a remote desert far away from the powers of Egypt. Fast forward to age 80, God sent Moses to challenge Pharaoh to let the people of Israel leave Egypt. That first meeting with Pharaoh quickly went from bad to worse! Moses would live to be over 120 years old, and he experienced a lot of life. He was very aware of the ups and downs that come from living in a fallen world.
Our own lives can be like that, we have a good, even honorable plan. We seek to live as we should, but at times our life events can easily go from bad to worse. Sometimes we let that happen and other times the world just does it for us. Moses kept his focus on the Living God, whether it was good or bad times.
It’s a good plan to seek God’s heart through all seasons of life, but how do we do that with the ups and downs of this world? The Book of Proverbs gives us some precious advice: Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT) “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; Do not depend on your own understanding. (6) Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.”
