Here is Where We Are
“There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, ‘I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.’ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’ And Moses said, ‘Here I am.’” - Exodus 3:2-4
My family still makes fun of me about something I said years ago while on vacation. We were taking a shuttle from our hotel to a cute little downtown area along a New England beach. There were multiple stops and a small map on the side of the shuttle. Without knowing the area, we had to guess which stop would put us closest to the tourist area. I didn’t want to get off early and have to walk like a chump when there’s a shuttle that will take me right where I want to go! When we arrived at our stop, I exclaimed to my family, “Here is where we are!” They all looked at me and laughed. Don’t you mean “Here we are?!” they jabbed, pointing out that the phrase “here is where we are” could mean anywhere because anywhere we happen to be is where we are! I still don’t think it’s very funny; my phrase works. I was reminded of that phrase because of Moses’s response to God’s call. Let me explain.
Moses receives the call of God in a specific place from a very common bush. The call of Moses does not happen in a spiritual vacuum devoid of any earthly influence. Moses sees a bush and a fire – two earthly things that are not uncommon to the desert. From these ordinary materials, Moses hears the call of God. In fact, Moses discerns this call only when he moves closer to these commonplace things of desert life.
The call to be a pastor is not a call to leave the plain, ordinary stuff of the world. It is a call to pay attention, to move closer to the things of this earth, and to notice the movement of God. Our calling is not an ethereal one devoid of any earthly substance. It is not an abstract, otherworldly calling. Rather, the pastorate has a very real and local context. I have heard leaders talk about calling the way people talk about getting a dinner invitation from the Queen of England; It is important and requires going somewhere special. However, Moses fled the “important” life in Egypt. He had given up the attraction of the next big thing. He was content to live as a shepherd and make regular trips through the desert with his sheep. After all, how would he have noticed a strange sight in the desert unless he was already familiar with the normal sights of the desert? There are some leaders who are so unfamiliar with their context that they are unable to notice the strange sights. Not Moses. He was grounded enough in his own life to notice when something required investigation and it wasn’t until he moved closer to it that he heard God’s call.
As Christian leaders, this is an invitation to become familiar with the people, places, stories, and ordinary routines of our everyday lives. All too often, we are too focused on seeing some better world that we forget to pay attention to the ways God is moving in our actual one. God is speaking in every bush, in every person, and in every moment. We need eyes to notice Him. I think one way to gain this perspective is to remember, “here is where we are.”
You are not in some other life - a different church, a better organization, a stronger financial standing, or a more simple set of life circumstances. Here is where you are. If you are going to hear the voice of God, it is going to be here. Your actual life is the only context you have. It’s a good thing it is also the context that God enters into.
