My Next 40 Years

I turned 42 this summer.  I have a great family, awesome jobs and amazing friends.  But I still end up wondering, "is this really what God wants me to be doing right now? " Some days I feel like I'm on the cusp of something, being prepared for a grand adventure into what God really wants me to do with my life.  Then I'll remember that I'm 42.  I'll think "Shouldn't I be grown up by now?  Shouldn't I be doing whatever it is God wants me to do with my life by now?  Have I failed?"

I love the Old Testament.  It is filled with stories of people screwing up God's promises and God redeeming them anyway.  Of course there is a lot of God punishing people for their screw ups but still, there's redemption.  Don't get me wrong, I love, Love, LOVE Jesus.  I'm so thankful he came to replace the law that the Old Testament folks couldn't keep.  I am so thankful that my salvation is based on Jesus' sacrifice and grace and not on my ability to keep the law.  I would fail so miserably at keeping the law.  Oh, I'd work super hard at it but then someone would make me mad and I'd be in trouble all over again.

Yesterday I started reading Exodus.  Exodus 1 details Pharaoh's plan to kill all the male babies born to the Israelites.  But God used the midwives to save the babies.  Then in Exodus 2 we read about  how Moses' sister and mother saved him.   And not only did they save him, he ended up as Pharaoh's grandson.  I love God's ways, he has such an awesome sense of humor.

What caught my eye and attention this morning were the headings in Exodus 2.  The first heading says Moses' first forty years.  Under that heading is the story of how Moses' was saved as a baby.  The next heading is Moses' second forty years.  Under that heading is the story of Moses killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew, hiding the body and then running away from Pharaoh who wanted to kill him.  Not a very mature leader.

Wow! When Moses was in his 40s God was still preparing him for what was to come.  Is it possible that God is still preparing me for what He has in store for me?  LORD, I hope so! I understand that people in the Old Testament lived much longer than we do today.  I'm not a Bible scholar so I don't know if they really lived so much longer or if they had shorter years or what.  I'm not really concerned with that.

My point is that God provides hope in the strangest of places.  This morning it was through 2 headings in the Bibles.  Headings that were probably added by men many years after Exodus was written.  But still God used those headings to give me hope.  To speak to me and reassure that the best is yet to come.  To let me know that He is always in control.  He is preparing a way for me.  He is preparing me for the way.  God has big things planned for my next 40 years.  I can't wait.