Seasons of Service

I’ve been absent from writing posts for a while. It’s not that my heart hasn’t wanted to write more, but rather my season of service has been elsewhere. I’ve been dealing with the sewer systems in my hometown and caring for my neighbors. Christian service is not like a horse race in which there is win, place, and show. We all win when we cross the finish line having given our all to the race God has set before us.

It made me think about our walk of faith. And seasons of service. Moses didn’t always lead the Israelites. For a while, it was sheep. For a while, he was leading no one at all…he was trying to do it alone and was pretty bad at it. And in his final days on earth, he only got to see the Promised Land. He couldn’t enter it.

Why? Because of the waters at Meribah, where Moses and Aaron broke faith with God.

Deuteronomy 32:44 Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. 45 When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. 47 They are not just idle words for you– they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” 48 On that same day the LORD told Moses, 49 “Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. 50 There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. 51 This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. 52 Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”

Not just idle words…they are your life! Wow. Seasons of service are all about obedience and faith. They are about honoring God, obeying Him, and by doing so, upholding His holiness and experiencing true life.

So while I would have preferred to write posts and think deep theological thoughts instead of about aquifers and hydrological cycles, I’d like to be able to enter the Land having kept the faith. To say at the end of each season of service, what Paul said at the end of his life,