For the greater part of my adult life, I have lived in the Nevada desert. I spend a great deal of my time exploring that desert, photographing its scenery, and sharing with people of its beauty and opportunities. The people who eked out a living here fascinate me, because they came here on the promise of precious things to be found in a place where nobody else wanted to go, and I stay here because I have found precious things in my own efforts. Mostly, I enjoy the desert because it is sparsely populated; most people don’t want to pay the price to come here and make something great.
Over the past week, I have thought a lot about Moses. I know this may come as a shock to people who don’t think I’m a Christian or that I believe in the Bible. I have come, over the last year, to appreciate Moses more as someone with whom I can empathize, not for the great memorable things he did but for the things he did that made those other things possible. You see, Moses crossed the Sinai TWICE. First, he was thrown out of Egypt and left to die in the desert. While there, as Cecil B DeMille tells us, he was purified like God purifies all of his prophets, from the man he was to the man God intended him to be, and I realized that, although I don’t see burning bushes and the like, my wanderings in the desert have done the same for me. The second time Moses crossed Sinai, it was after he did many mighty miracles before Pharaoh, and he must have been frustrated because the people still didn’t get with the program. Their plight escalated as Pharaoh forced them to make bricks without straw and then threatened to kill their firstborn, and it seemed all hope was lost when Pharaoh’s army caught them by the Red Sea. Even after their shenanigans, Moses said, “Yet now, if thou wilt, forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.” He loved them. He is one of my heroes.
My life in the desert has not been easy, but it has been good for me. So maybe I wasn’t a slave, but I have had to buy my way out of bondage and trust in God for deliverance from troubling people with whom I once worked closely. I have been betrayed by friends and attacked by people who envy me. I’ve crossed the Nevada desert many times in my car, and I have seen the hand of God in mighty mountains and summer storms and blooming flowers. You need not suppose I have seen great manifestations, but then again I am not called to be a prophet or perhaps ready for it even if that is my destiny. I have learned that life is made rich, not in the accumulation of large nuggets, but in the patient accumulation of tiny flakes. I have learned that wandering in the desert is made useful not at great speed but when we get out of our cars and take single steps into a larger universe of possibility. I thank God for this education and for His deliverance as I have struggled in the wilderness that we call Nevada.
While those around me are prospered, I have struggled in faith and fidelity to the things my parents taught me. I have learned that compensation doesn’t always come in the paycheck or when I like or even in this life, I have learned that the Law of the Harvest applies, and that we truly reap what we sow. Many of those who resist my rise are themselves miserable, and every advantage they gain by their miscreantism has not sufficed to make them happy or whole. Perhaps it frustrates them all the more to see that they are unsuccessful in bringing me down, and that in some case I rise as a consequence of their attacks. I remember that the Egyptians relied on centuries of slave labor to build that over which we drool as tourists; I also remember that when Israel left Egypt, they spoiled it and took their wages in cattle, food, and other trinkets. In the end, although they didn’t get Egypt, they did spoil the land, and they inherited a wonderful Land of Promise so desirable that neighbor nations still envy them today the bountiful land of israel they came to inhabit.
I thank God for scriptures and the experiences contained therein that help us make decisions that build in us a better character. These people learned that they can accomplish difficult things, and they learned that it is the Lord who is the difference, that no matter what they do or how poorly a modern Moses may exercise God’s power that God’s work will be done, that it will be done well, and that it will be done on time, and that those who help His work will inherit the good of the land. Scripture teaches us that, even if you are forced to “make bricks without straw”, those who trust in God will be led to a Land of Promise. The simple secret is to trust God and do your best. No matter how much we fear it, if we are actively engaged in doing our honest best, we can’t screw up God’s plan or His will for us. Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, but in the end they conquered when they trusted God. I look forward to learning, when He leads me from the desert, where my Jericho will be, knowing that, if I follow His counsel, my shouts of Hosanna will make me triumphant as it did for the men of Joshua.
1 comment:
Beautiful. As always.
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