Exodus 3

On December 23, 2009, in the middle of a record breaking blizzard, Team Waldstein rolled into Minot, North Dakota. (Pronounced MY-not...rhymes with, “Why not?”...see what I did there?) It was a new start for our family, and one only my husband was excited about! Outwardly I went willingly, because I knew in my head it was the right move for our family. Inwardly I was scared and resistant, and I grieved the loss of everything familiar and loved about our previous home. 

Moses found himself in a somewhat similar situation. (Side note: no two of us have the same exact experience, but the same God who was at work in and through Moses is at work in and through us!) When Moses fled Egypt he ended up in a strange land (Midian), with a new family (Zipporah and son), and a new occupation (shepherd). (Ex. 2:21, 3:1) That’s a big difference from living in an Egyptian palace as the son of Pharaoh! Moses had given up on ever being a part of his own people back in Egypt; he even named his son Gershom, which translates to “foreigner there.” 

God saw the big picture and knew the timeline for Moses’ time in the wilderness. The Bible doesn’t share every lesson Moses learned in those years, but maybe he needed preparation for the next step. It was admittedly a big one: freeing the Israelites from Egyptian captivity. He certainly needed some big nudges from God himself to get him to a place of acceptance of the task! Perhaps our own wilderness experiences are designed to get us from our current “here” into God’s “there?”

The three-and-a-half years we lived in Minot were undoubtedly a “wilderness” season in my life, and they were also some of the most transformative. Hindsight has shown me that there wasn’t one big task I was being prepared for as in Moses’ case, but there were lots of lessons along the way. When I chose to listen to God’s heart instead of my own mind, I learned the value of obedience and community. I learned about trusting a good God to take care of me no matter where I was, and I learned to look for and appreciate the beauty around me, even if I didn’t love my surroundings.

I wasn’t in charge of my wilderness timeline any more than Moses was, and God was (is!) big enough to take care of me in a new place, just as God promised to take care of Moses back in Egypt. It took being stripped of everything familiar for me to learn the aforementioned lessons, and I didn’t learn them overnight. I’m thankful it only took a bit more than three years, compared to Moses’ 40! The trajectory of Team Waldstein has taken many twists and turns since we moved that first time, and the lessons I learned during that first relocation have set me up for fruitfulness on the other side of the “wilderness.”

We just closed out a year that definitely had a “wilderness” feel to it, and we don’t yet have an end date on the calendar. Are there lessons you need to be learning during this time of wilderness? What could God possibly be preparing you for during this time? Are you listening to God’s heart or your own mind?