Have you heard someone say, “They’ve been happily married for 60 years.”
Or, “Over all these years, I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed every moment.”
Or maybe, “I’ve never had a second of doubt.”
Bologna!
I love Ruth Graham’s answer when she was asked if she ever thought about divorcing Billy, “No, I’ve never thought of divorce in all these years of marriage, but,” she said, “I did think of murder a few times.“
The truth is that smooth sailing in life isn’t what makes us better, or stronger, or happier. We gain the most valuable things for living in the less glamorous times and experiences of our lives.
Moses was watching his father-in-law’s sheep in desolate place. It was rough. Hot. Dry. But Jethro had taught him where to find water; which plants had berries that could be eaten; and which of the plants were safe for the sheep to eat.
It was a pretty boring, mundane existence compared to the courts of Pharaoh, but Moses carried on. However, there had to be moments of shear frustration.
He was a Hebrew…but not accepted by them.
He had been treated like royalty…now he was in total obscurity.
He is living in a foreign place…that he can’t relate to and doesn’t quite fit in.
One day as Moses and the sheep were wandering up into the hills, a bush caught on fire and began to speak to him,
“Moses, take your sandals off because the place you are standing is holy ground.”
Moses hesitated for a moment. “Holy ground?” he thought. “This place? I’ve been up here a million times. It’s covered in sheep dung.” Then God spoke to him and gave him the instructions for getting His people out of Egypt.
It wasn’t long after this that Moses stood confidently before Pharaoh. He knew the drill. He knew who to talk to, who to salute, who to bow before, and how to talk to a Pharaoh because he used to live in that palace.
It wasn’t long after this that he smiled when Pharaoh’s sorcerers turned their rods into snakes. He thought how these snakes were nothing compared to the ones he had killed in Median. Then he watched the snake his rod had become eat the others.
It wasn’t long after this that he could sense the reluctance of the people about following him into the wilderness. “What are we going to eat? What are we going to drink?” they cried. He thought about how much they reminded him of Jethro’s sheep while watching water come from a rock and manna appear in the morning.
And it wasn’t too long after this that he pushed back some tears from his eyes as God told him there would be forty more years of wandering in the desert. But he thought about how faithful God had been in the other wildernesses of his life. This one would be no different.
We also boast of our troubles, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance brings God’s approval, and his approval creates hope. (Romans 5:3–4, GNB)
It’s the things that are difficult, things that press on us and trouble us, that actually bring about God’s blessing and give rise to hope. Not problem-free living. Not living happily ever after.
To those who think otherwise, I would say, "Bologna!” Moses would probably say, “SHEEP DUNG!”
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