Tuesday, November
6, 2018
“One day when Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his relatives, the people of Israel. He saw an Egyptian mistreating an Israelite. So Moses came to the man’s defense and avenged him, killing the Egyptian. Moses assumed his fellow Israelites would realize that God had sent him to rescue them, but they didn’t. “The next day he visited them again and saw two men of Israel fighting. He tried to be a peacemaker. ‘Men,’ he said, ‘you are brothers. Why are you fighting each other?’ “But the man in the wrong pushed Moses aside. ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?’ he asked. ‘Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?’ When Moses heard that, he fled the country and lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian. There his two sons were born. Acts 7:23-29(NLT)
Moses had a good idea; sometimes that’s
not enough. Having recently found out
that he was born an Israelite, this prince of Egypt was trying to find his true
pathway in life and visited the people who were his people by birth, but who
were slaves to the nation that had adopted him.
It went badly.
Moses had a knee-jerk reaction to a fellow
Egyptian’s barbaric treatment of an Israelite, who (in Moses’ mind) could have
been a relative. This highlighted Moses’
own dilemma; he was powerful, and at the same time, a slave by birth in a borrowed
princely robe. The warring indignation within
became the roaring fire of self-righteous anger without; Moses killed the man. When he went back the next day to check on
the results of his saving act of mercy-killing, his deed was named by his
kinsman; Moses was now a murderer. He
did what villains do; he ran away.
The idea to protect the powerless
Israelite was a good idea; acting as judge, jury and executioner was not. If we look ahead, we find Moses hiding out in
obscurity for the next forty years until that burning bush encounter with God
would draw him back to Egypt.
So, what does this have to do with mud?
It’s bound up in the old expression about
choosing which battles are yours, and how you should fight. The expression begins: Never wrestle with a pig…. The imagery of that kind of combat takes
you to the mud wallow; both you and the pig will get covered in mud, and the only
noticeable difference between you and Porky is that the pig loves it.
Which brings us to the trouble with
mud. As a believer/disciple of Jesus
Christ, you were never intended to run in the mud; your place is walking the
narrow path and soaring with the eagles.
But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31(NLT)
Sometimes it takes a truckload of
restraint, and not a little biting of the lip to resist being drawn into the mudhole
over a pig-type of issue. It takes winsomeness
and calmness from thoughtful people to let cooler heads prevail in the kind of
climate to which our culture has turned.
That turning is towards the mudhole of drama, pushed agendas, and severe
lack of respect.
It is the opposite of Christian
graciousness.
For You Today
A bit of Max Ehrmann’s wisdom to start
today in a prayer for dialogue and communion with others to replace the
shouting matches:
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.[2]
Go to VIDEO
[2] Max Ehrmann, Desiderata,
1952
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