...something inside so strong

“The higher you build your barriers

The taller I become

The farther you take my rights away

The faster I will run

You can deny me

You can decide to turn your face away

No matter, cos there's.... Something inside so strong”

Labi Siffre

It took the Israelite slaves 400 years fulfil their wish and desire to finally leave Egypt and head ‘home’ to Israel. For many slaves on that journey home was Egypt, they had known nothing different – especially Moses. But God had a plan that Moses was the one to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, to a ‘home’ that most had never experienced. Moses had a clear mandate from God but for the majority of Israelites the calling home was perhaps just a God given sensation and belief buried deep within their hearts. It was a desire so strong that they heard and followed Moses’ call, it would not go away, and it was preordained.

Exodus 3:7-10

 “The Lord said, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering…So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt”

Following our heart is definitely not a recommended route…or is it?

Unless we back up emotion with ration – it’s irrational, right? And being irrational is being crazy, nonsensical and certainly not using our wisdom.

But where and how do we hear God in this? Do we have the courage to be like Moses? Or follow like the Israelites?

I’ve rarely had a sensation so strong that I’ve had to act on it. I’ve normally been able to rationalise myself in or out of those game breaking situations and I find myself wondering at what cost or at what loss.

But within Exodus the clear message is Get Up…Leave…Take Off... but most of us perhaps resist our marching orders. We prefer to embrace the known and feel resistance to change the old for the new.

God wants to lead us too if we’ll let Him.

It seems I’m just too scared to see through the desert sandstorm on my journey to the Red Sea. Or if ever I reach the Red Sea I’ll happily build a wall or barrier. It might stop me crashing but it also stops me seeing and reaching the amazing world beyond that God has planned for me.

As I’m typing this – God just broke through my consciousness through TV audio “We might live happily ever after, who knows!”

And the reality is I don’t even like the Labi Siffre song but sometimes it takes the unusual to make us realise we need to listen.