Who Am I

Context

By the time we meet Moses in the desert, he has already failed at being a hero once. Forty years back he was Egyptian royalty, then he killed a man defending a Hebrew and ran. Now he's eighty, tending sheep that aren't even his, far from anyone who remembers his name.

This is the guy God is about to recruit.

Story

Moses is walking the flock up the mountain when he spots a bush on fire. Nothing strange yet — it's a desert. But this one burns and burns and never burns up. He steps closer to look, and that's when the voice calls his own name out of the flames, twice.

God lays out the whole assignment: he's seen his people suffering in Egypt, and Moses is the one going to pull them out. You'd think the man who once dreamed of rescuing his people would be all in. He's not. His first words are a résumé problem.

"Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?"

God doesn't argue with the résumé. He doesn't pull up the old highlight reel or list Moses's strengths. He just answers, "I will be with you." Moses asks who he is, and God answers with who He is. Five excuses come to that bush, and God refuses every one without shaming a single one.

What We Learn

Here's the part that won't leave me. Moses isn't wrong about himself. He really did fail. The disqualifications are all true. We do this constantly — we feel the nudge toward the thing and answer it exactly like he did. Who am I to do that.

We're often right about the facts. We just have the wrong question. The call was never about whether Moses was enough. It was about who was sending him.

Maybe the thing you keep deflecting was never waiting for you to feel ready. Maybe it's just been waiting for you to take off your shoes.