At the beginning of this month, we launched Lifespring’s vision for 2023 (see it here: https://youtu.be/dvDYU138YMc?t=2725). I, for one, am excited about what we’ll be doing in the new year. When Uncle Perry spoke about the new season coming up for Lifespring, he mentioned that God would be taking us from a place of equipping to empowerment. But what does the journey from equipping to empowerment look like? I compare that journey to another journey in the Bible, that of the Israelites leaving Egypt in Exodus.
There are five things I think the Exodus story can teach us about our own journey:
- It teaches us about God’s role and our role
- It teaches us to pay attention to where God is at work
- It teaches us to know the season we’re in
- It prepares us for challenges, but ensures us that we’re safe
- It exhorts us to be sensitive to those in need around us.
First, the Exodus story can teach us about our role and God’s role in the next season. In Exodus 3: 7-10, God commissions Moses to go to Pharaoh to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. For most of these verses however, God is speaking about Himself: “I’ve seen my people oppressed,” “I’ve come down to rescue them,” “the Israelites cries of injustice have reached me.” The main actor and the main driver in the Exodus story is God. God is the one who hears the people’s pain and brings them out of Egypt. No doubt, Moses is very important to God’s plan, but it is always God who is working and calling Moses to have a part in it. For Lifespring, it is important for us to recognize that it will be God who is at work in this next season. We have an important role to play, like Moses did, but in the end, it is important to remember that God is the main actor and driver.
Second, the Exodus story teaches us that we need to follow the cloud. In Exodus 13, the Israelites left Egypt and God goes before the people in a pillar of cloud in the day and a pillar of lightning at night. In the next season at Lifespring, God will be going before us like that pillar of cloud and lightning. The most important thing for us will be to pay attention to the cloud–to listen in prayer and hear where God wants to take us. We shouldn’t be surprised when things seem to come together for us as God leads the way into new things.
Third, the Exodus story teaches us how important it is to know the season we’re in. In Exodus 14, God leads the Israelites to camp out on the shore of the sea, before telling them to get moving and cross the Reed Sea. There were times when the people were supposed to move, and times they were supposed to stop. For Lifespring, in the next season we will have moments when we should move, and moments when we should stop. The next season will not simply be about doing good works. It will be about doing the right thing, at the right time. The right thing done at the wrong time becomes the wrong thing! What is most important is paying attention to (1) what God wants us to do, and (2) God’s timing for those things.
Fourth, Exodus 13 talks about how the Israelites were led by God to travel across the desert. The desert was a difficult place, and the people feared they were going to starve. God was taking the people to the promised land, but the path to the promised land was through the desert. For Lifespring, in the next season, there will be challenges. Sometimes God’s path takes us to difficult places. We need to be prepared for the challenges that are ahead in the new year. However, while God’s path is challenging, it is also safe. God provided daily for the Israelites with manna and quail. Though God’s path may be tough, we can always trust that God will never fail to provide.
Lastly, there is an important line in Exodus 3:7 that says, ““I have indeed [surely] seen the affliction of my people in Egypt. I have heard their outcry because of their slave-masters, and I know their sufferings.” God saw, heard, and knew the suffering of His people, and did something drastic to change their situation and take them out of the place where they were oppressed. God was not indifferent to the suffering of his people. In the same way, part of our call in the next season is to not be indifferent to others. We are to recognize when those around us are suffering and in pain, and reach out to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
The path that Lifespring will be on over the next year will be exciting, but also challenging. As we press on into new things for the new year, we can trust that God will be out in front of us, leading the way forward as we listen for His direction.