August 17, 2020
Good afternoon,
“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go up this mountain in the Abarim Range and see the land I have given the Israelites.” Numbers 27:12
Moses is invited by God to look onto the Promised Land. But, in the end, Moses is not allowed to go into the land flowing with milk and honey. Moses has sinned while he was leading the people of God for forty years in the wilderness. Leadership for Moses was not easy. The people criticized him. They built a golden calf while he was up on Sinai, listening to God. Moses was looking to find the Promised Land, so he would be called a successful leader. He was looking to enjoy that day. It never came.
We hiked on a Bruce Trail path last week that went south from Lion’s Head toward Wiarton, along the coast of Georgian Bay. There were beautiful outlooks onto the Bay. It was a busy trail that day. For the most part it is rocky, and it goes up and down, and never in a straight line. Just like it was for the Israelites in the desert. We hiked for about three hours, and were coming near the end. I was tired, and so I was looking ahead for the end of the trail. I thought I saw one of those colourful garbage bins that keep bears out, and I fell over. My arms broke my fall, and I was all right. There was a large tree across the whole path, and I was so interested in seeing the promised land ( the end of the trail ) that I was not looking down. Beside scraped shins I was fine. Fortunately, we were near the end of the trail, and the path was filled with wood shavings. Had there been rocks, it might have hurt more than just my pride.
We have to look at what is front of us, and look forward down the road. It is a difficult thing to do, when we are doing well, but when we have various challenges in our lives, or the life of the church, it is harder to do both at the same time. When we are tired, or we have lots of energy to look way down the road, we might stumble. If we fall over those logs in the middle of the trail that are easily seen by others, we just have to get up, and start again.God will guide our looking down, and looking up.
Prayer
When we look down, we will find you.
When we look up, we will find you.
When we see you,we will follow your ways, your ground and your sky.
We await your next move in our lives. Amen.
Fred
Tread on bold new paths
!Fireflies flash the direction
Hope springs eternal Monica Pieper Landoni 2020
Fred Redekop Pastor Poole Mennonite Church
