Perhaps you've seen the signs, bumper stickers or T-shirts that depict a crown with the words, "Keep Calm And" then some other statement like, "Carry On" or "Chive On" or "Eat a Cookie". The latter part of the phrase could be almost anything and doesn't even have to make sense. In fact some I've seen border on the ridicules and even profane. Even the Christian paraphernalia marketers have gotten in on this fad. I'm sure to a stressed out world this "Keep Calm" craze is appealing. However, it drives me absolutely nuts. Perhaps because it goes against my charge ahead, Type A personality that I dislike those phrases. I also don't like the phrases, "Chill Out" or "Take a Chill Pill" either. And whoever started the phrase, "Chillax"...well, anyway where was I.
Everyone recognizes the need to stay under control or calm in those heated moments of stress or intensity or high pressure, but very few actually do it. Oh it's easy to stay calm lounging at the beach or viewing the majesty of a serene mountain lake. But staying calm behind the wheel in a driving rainstorm during heavy rush hour traffic in a strange city when you don't really know where you are going is a different story. Under those circumstances you find yourself yelling at the inanimate feminine GPS voice on your navigation device.
We live in a high pressure, high stress world. Time demands, business demands, parenting demands, financial demands, relational demands, personal demands compound upon each other stretching us to our limits. Even getting everyone out the door and on time in the morning can become such an ordeal that we get to work in an already frenzied state of mind. Too often we find ourselves either reaching for a couple extra shots of caffeine to keep us going at a high level of efficiency or reaching for glass of wine or some other alcoholic beverage or our medicine cabinet to calm us down.
Reading through Exodus 14 I was reminded of the stress and oppressive circumstances facing the children of Israel who were in slavery in Egypt. They were crying out for deliverance, but when it came it seemed to them a much worse fate. I'm sure as they initially headed out of Egypt with the chariots on their tales they felt like they had gone out of the proverbial frying pan into the fire. I don't have to speculate about this because the text says they were screaming at Moses, 10 As Pharaoh approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them. They cried out to the Lord, 11 and they said to Moses, “Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? 12 Didn’t we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, ‘Leave us alone! Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It’s better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!’”
We've all been there. Just when we thought things or the pressure couldn't get any worse, something else happens to make our lives or our situation seem hopelessly impossible. That's when we crack, break down, cry out, blurt out in anger or fall into deep depression. Verse 10 says it, "they looked up and panicked." And their response was typical, "can't we just go back to being miserable." That is ultimately what the Israelites were saying to Moses.
If I were one of the Israelites that day, I probably would have found myself on the side that wanted to strangle Moses. As I often said, "Oh ME of little faith." Sometimes even following God seems like you've gone from the frying pan into the fire. And our immediate response is almost always, "how am I going to solve this or get out of this." We start analyzing things from our abilities or resources or perspective. We may cry out, but we do so in panic mode, still trying figure out how to get ourselves out of our difficult situation.
It's in those hopelessly impossible situations that God often does His best work or His glory is best seen anyway. Looking closely again to what happen intrigues me. Moses tells them to stop freaking out. Don't be afraid of this massive, well trained army bearing down on you. I know easier said then done. Fear is a crippling. It refocuses your attention so much on the potential harm that you can't think, act, or often reason properly. It even causes us to take our attention off of God.
Moses goes on to tell the people to just stand still and watch. Watch what? Watch God begin to do His thing. It must have been weird for the Israelites to watch that pillar of fire that had been before them raise up, drift overhead and then settle in between them and the Egyptian army. The Israelites weren't out of danger but now they had a glimmer of hope.
The New Living Translation says in verse 14 that Moses said, "The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm." There it is, "stay calm." I can hear the Israelites now, "Yeah Right." However, the NIV says, "be still" and New American Standard Bible says "while you keep silent." I might not have been so diplomatic if I were Moses. I would have more likely said something like, "Shut up and stop your whining." But I confess that Moses was probably more Godly than I am. The point is that when you are in panic mode and just gibbering you really can't see that God is actually working. You have to be still for a moment, cease your striving as Ps. 46:10 says and know that He is God. When we are so freaked out by our circumstance, we have a tendency to squeeze out the voice of God or see Him moving.
So under this extremely tense situation, Moses has said, dump the fear, slow your motor down and watch for God to do His thing. Then God tells both Moses and the people to do something strange. He tells them to get moving! Moving? Where? Away from the Egyptians means moving toward the Red Sea and there are no boats there. Here's the deal, God is telling the people to move away from the trouble and go forward from where they are. God also told Moses to hold up his staff over the water and a way would be provided.
When I played football my running back coach always told me look for the hole and run to daylight. He was basically saying let your blockers do their job. Don't watch what they're doing or zero in on your opponents. Watch for the open opportunities and run hard and fast toward those. I soon discovered that if I stayed in the backfield and tried to juke the oncoming tacklers I was tackled in the backfield and found myself on the bench. But when I did what the coach told me, I always picked up positive yards.
When the people did just what God told them to do and let Him do His thing, they were not only saved, delivered, rescued, they saw a miracle of God. He totally destroyed the Egyptian army before their very eyes and not a single arrow was flung, spear tossed or sword drawn. In fact, not a single person in the Israelite camp were harmed. Amazing! God smashed the world's most powerful army of its day with simply His breath.
God, I need to feel your breath upon me and around me right now. I seem to get so caught up in all the stressors and pressures of life that I find myself in panic mode all too often. Help me put aside my fears, to slow my motor down long enough to see Your hand at work. I don't want to be a whiner, Lord. I want to simply follow your path. Show me the open path so that I can run to daylight, your daylight. I want to see your glory and bring you glory through my life.
Everyone recognizes the need to stay under control or calm in those heated moments of stress or intensity or high pressure, but very few actually do it. Oh it's easy to stay calm lounging at the beach or viewing the majesty of a serene mountain lake. But staying calm behind the wheel in a driving rainstorm during heavy rush hour traffic in a strange city when you don't really know where you are going is a different story. Under those circumstances you find yourself yelling at the inanimate feminine GPS voice on your navigation device.
We live in a high pressure, high stress world. Time demands, business demands, parenting demands, financial demands, relational demands, personal demands compound upon each other stretching us to our limits. Even getting everyone out the door and on time in the morning can become such an ordeal that we get to work in an already frenzied state of mind. Too often we find ourselves either reaching for a couple extra shots of caffeine to keep us going at a high level of efficiency or reaching for glass of wine or some other alcoholic beverage or our medicine cabinet to calm us down.
Reading through Exodus 14 I was reminded of the stress and oppressive circumstances facing the children of Israel who were in slavery in Egypt. They were crying out for deliverance, but when it came it seemed to them a much worse fate. I'm sure as they initially headed out of Egypt with the chariots on their tales they felt like they had gone out of the proverbial frying pan into the fire. I don't have to speculate about this because the text says they were screaming at Moses, 10 As Pharaoh approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them. They cried out to the Lord, 11 and they said to Moses, “Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? 12 Didn’t we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, ‘Leave us alone! Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It’s better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!’”
We've all been there. Just when we thought things or the pressure couldn't get any worse, something else happens to make our lives or our situation seem hopelessly impossible. That's when we crack, break down, cry out, blurt out in anger or fall into deep depression. Verse 10 says it, "they looked up and panicked." And their response was typical, "can't we just go back to being miserable." That is ultimately what the Israelites were saying to Moses.
If I were one of the Israelites that day, I probably would have found myself on the side that wanted to strangle Moses. As I often said, "Oh ME of little faith." Sometimes even following God seems like you've gone from the frying pan into the fire. And our immediate response is almost always, "how am I going to solve this or get out of this." We start analyzing things from our abilities or resources or perspective. We may cry out, but we do so in panic mode, still trying figure out how to get ourselves out of our difficult situation.
It's in those hopelessly impossible situations that God often does His best work or His glory is best seen anyway. Looking closely again to what happen intrigues me. Moses tells them to stop freaking out. Don't be afraid of this massive, well trained army bearing down on you. I know easier said then done. Fear is a crippling. It refocuses your attention so much on the potential harm that you can't think, act, or often reason properly. It even causes us to take our attention off of God.
Moses goes on to tell the people to just stand still and watch. Watch what? Watch God begin to do His thing. It must have been weird for the Israelites to watch that pillar of fire that had been before them raise up, drift overhead and then settle in between them and the Egyptian army. The Israelites weren't out of danger but now they had a glimmer of hope.
The New Living Translation says in verse 14 that Moses said, "The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm." There it is, "stay calm." I can hear the Israelites now, "Yeah Right." However, the NIV says, "be still" and New American Standard Bible says "while you keep silent." I might not have been so diplomatic if I were Moses. I would have more likely said something like, "Shut up and stop your whining." But I confess that Moses was probably more Godly than I am. The point is that when you are in panic mode and just gibbering you really can't see that God is actually working. You have to be still for a moment, cease your striving as Ps. 46:10 says and know that He is God. When we are so freaked out by our circumstance, we have a tendency to squeeze out the voice of God or see Him moving.
So under this extremely tense situation, Moses has said, dump the fear, slow your motor down and watch for God to do His thing. Then God tells both Moses and the people to do something strange. He tells them to get moving! Moving? Where? Away from the Egyptians means moving toward the Red Sea and there are no boats there. Here's the deal, God is telling the people to move away from the trouble and go forward from where they are. God also told Moses to hold up his staff over the water and a way would be provided.
When I played football my running back coach always told me look for the hole and run to daylight. He was basically saying let your blockers do their job. Don't watch what they're doing or zero in on your opponents. Watch for the open opportunities and run hard and fast toward those. I soon discovered that if I stayed in the backfield and tried to juke the oncoming tacklers I was tackled in the backfield and found myself on the bench. But when I did what the coach told me, I always picked up positive yards.
When the people did just what God told them to do and let Him do His thing, they were not only saved, delivered, rescued, they saw a miracle of God. He totally destroyed the Egyptian army before their very eyes and not a single arrow was flung, spear tossed or sword drawn. In fact, not a single person in the Israelite camp were harmed. Amazing! God smashed the world's most powerful army of its day with simply His breath.
God, I need to feel your breath upon me and around me right now. I seem to get so caught up in all the stressors and pressures of life that I find myself in panic mode all too often. Help me put aside my fears, to slow my motor down long enough to see Your hand at work. I don't want to be a whiner, Lord. I want to simply follow your path. Show me the open path so that I can run to daylight, your daylight. I want to see your glory and bring you glory through my life.
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