Into The Unknown

Exodus 24:12-18

As the weeks pass after my Ecclesiastical Council, I find myself living in yet another holding pattern. For those who don't know what an ecclesiastical council is, it's a meeting of churches within my denomination who decide whether or not I can move forward to accept a call to become a minister within our denomination. That decision is the next-to-final step in becoming ordained.

As I await a call I am fully aware I don't just sit and wait. There are things I need to do, steps I need to take, and these are the final steps before entering the time when I truly wait for God's plan for me to come to fruition. In a way, it's like what Moses is going through in today's passage.

Moses is at the end of a journey, well, almost at the end. God has summoned Moses to a mountain in order to pass on further instructions. In reading this passage I noticed that Moses traveled with companions along the way, especially two of his most trusted: Aaron and Joshua. But, in the end, it is Moses who needs to complete the task on his own.

When Moses get's to the waiting area atop the mountain, God sends a cloud to cover the mountain and Moses, keeping him in that cloud for 6 days. Imagine what that might have been like; staying in a cloud on a mountain with no companionship for 6 days. Adding to this is that Moses really has no idea what's coming next. I mean, he knows that God will eventually give him those tablets as promised, but God never says when.

Moses is in a holding pattern.

Being in a holding pattern takes patience as much as it takes an increased awareness as to what the next step on the journey is supposed to be. The holding patterns also take faith in the knowledge that God has a plan for you, and when that plan is ready to be put into place, it will happen.

A lot of times it's not those in the holding patterns who need to be prepared. I think about all the people who traveled with Moses to this point and how they felt when Moses went up the mountain by himself, became covered by a huge cloud, then disappears for a month and a half. I'm sure their lives went through some soul-searching as well.

A journey into the unknown is never easy, but it does get easier. Complete trust in God that God won't lead you somewhere until you're ready, then be with you all the way, helps. Just as God never left Moses on that mountain, in the end being Moses' only companion, God never leaves us.