The Art of Ending
From the Series—Transitions
November 21, 2002Exodus 14 records one of the most significant transitions in history--Israel’s exodus out of Egypt. The Israelites are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They are camped at Pi Hairoth with the Red Sea on one side and an attacking Egyptian army on the other side. Exodus 14:10 says the Israelites were “terrified” and said, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us into the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Did we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert.”
The Israelites assume the worst, but that’s what you tend to do after being enslaved for 430 years! You develop a defeatist attitude. You feel hopeless and helpless. But hear what Moses says to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still.” Then the Lord said to Moses in verse 15, ‘Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.”
When I graduated from Central Bible College I delivered the commencement address. I remember wrestling with a topic, but I landed on this passage. Our graduating class was about to go through one of the greatest transitions of our lives. We had been in school for sixteen years. That’s really all we knew. And it was tough to leave the familiar structures and familiar settings behind. There is always part of us that wants to go back--even if back is slavery in Egypt. But God calls us to “move on.”
A boss puts a pink slip on your desk. A boyfriend puts an engagement ring on your finger. Your spouse sends divorce papers in the mail. You walk the line and get your diploma. You fill out a change of address form. Those things symbolize transition--the end of one life chapter and the beginning of another. Some are welcome changes. Others are unwelcome changes. But in each instance, the question is: how do you move on?
Be Still
Exodus 14:14 says, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” In his book, Anam Cara, John O’ Donohue’s tells a story about an African explorer. He hired some native Africans to help carry his equipment through the jungle and they didn’t stop for three days. At the end of the third day these hired hands stopped and absolutely refused to move on. The explorer asked why and one of the African natives said, “We have moved to quickly to reach here; now we need to wait to give our spirits a chance to catch up with us.” Most of us could say the same thing. We’ve moved too quickly to get where we’re at and we need to give our spirits a chance to catch up.
Psalm 37 says, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.” Psalm 46 says, “Be still and know that I am God.” Zechariah 2:13 says, “Be still before the Lord, all mankind.”
It’s one thing to read Exodus 14:14 from the comfortable confines of your computer several thousand years after the fact, but put yourself in their shoes. The Egyptian army is breathing down your neck. You see the giant dust cloud from their chariots. You hear their war cry. What’s the toughest thing to do in a situation like that? The toughest thing is to “be still.” But that’s exactly what the Lord tells them to do. It was a trust test. Are the Israelites going to take matters into their own hands and fight for themselves? Or are they going to be still and let God fight for them?
Let me bring it a little closer to home because most of us will never experience the Egyptian army breathing down our necks. But we might have a boss who breaths down our neck. And most marriages experience a few dust clouds and war cries. What do we do when we’re stuck we’re being attacked on one side and it seems like there is no way out because we’ve got a Red Sea on the other side?
I think there is a time for negotiating and planning and analyzing. There is a place spreadsheets and strategic plans. But there is also a time to “be still” and “let God fight for you.”
Romans 12:19 says, “Leave room for God.” The immediate context is retribution. When someone attacks you, don’t try to even the score. That doesn’t mean we don’t set the record straight if we’re able to do it. That doesn’t mean we don’t defend ourselves if we can. It just means we don’t seek revenge. We leave room for God. We watch him fight for us.
I’ve learned that there are times when you need to stop trying to figure everything out, stop trying to negotiate, stop trying to pull strings, stop trying to take matters in our own hands, stop trying to do things in our own strength and leave room for God.
Over the past several months I have prayed for a friend who was trying to buyout a local company. He spent months analyzing and negotiating. It was a long and arduous ordeal and then he hit a wall. It seemed like a dead deal. In fact, I remember literally burying it in prayer. We prayed, “Lord, it’s in your hands. You’re in the resurrection business. If you want to raise this thing from the dead you can do it.” That’s exactly what happened several weeks later. The deal was resurrected. Sometimes we need to bury things. We need to let go. My friend could have continued to negotiate and analyze and strategize, but I don’t think it would have done any good. But when we “leave room for God,” God fights for us!
Move On
Exodus 14:14 says, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” The very next verse, Exodus 14:15, says, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.” In one sense, these verses seem contradictory. Verse 14 says “be still.” Verse 15 says “move on.” Well, which is it?
One of NCC’s core values is pray like it depends on God and work like it depends on you. It’s not either/or but both/and. I think that’s the message of these two verses. There are times we need to “be still” and times we need to “move on” and we need wisdom to know when to do what.
I’ve never forget an experience at one of our community groups a few years ago. We broke into small groups and prayed for one another. And one of the guys in my group mentioned that he needed a computer for the ministry he worked with. I remember praying for him and the Lord interrupted me. It’s one of those few times I’ve heard the inaudible but unmistakable voice of God. The Lord said, “Why are you asking me?” The truth is that I had an extra computer I didn’t really need so I quit praying. There are some things we don’t need to pray about. You don’t need to pray about whether or not to sin. You don’t need to pray about doing good when it’s within your power to bless someone. Sometimes we just need to work like it depends on us.
I think we can answer many, if not most, of the prayers we pray. Sometimes we pray for things and God must think, “Why are you praying like it depends on me? Why don’t you work like it depends on you.” Sometimes we need to “quit crying out” and “move on.”
The Art of Ending
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, “Great is the art of belonging, but greater is the art of ending.” Transitions are all about ending one chapter in our lives, whether we like it or not, and beginning a new chapter. How do we bring closure? How do we exit a season in life? How do we move on?
How do you move on when you spouse hands you divorce papers or a boss hands you a pink slip? How do you move on when a loved one dies? I don’t think there are any easy answers to those questions, but what I do know is that it is a process. Whenever we experience loss--whether it’s a relationship or a job or a dream--we go through a grieving process. That’s normal and healthy. God has created us with tear ducts. Ecclesiastes 3 says there is “a time to weep.”
I’ve always been intrigued by Joshua 5:9. It says, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” This is forty years after their exodus out of Egypt. It was a process. It took one night to get Israel out of Egypt. It took forty years to get Egypt out of Israel.
Doors and Bridges
In the early 1980’s my dad resigned his job and went to work for a competitor, but he didn’t burn any bridges. To make a long story short, that company recruited him several years later and he is now one of the company’s vice presidents. How you exit a situation--whether you’re ending a dating relationship, quitting a job, or leaving a church--speaks volumes about you. Sometimes you need to leave an open door.
I Corinthians 7:10 says, “A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled.” In other words, in some circumstances, we need to leave the door open for reconciliation. In other circumstances we are free to close the door. I Corinthians 7:15 says, “If the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances.”
Sometimes we need to leave an open door. Sometimes we need to burn bridges. There are two great examples in Scripture--one in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament.
In I Kings 19, the prophet Elijah recruits his replacement. Verse 21 says Elisha “took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them.” He “burned his plowing equipment” and “set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant.” One thing is for sure: Elisha wasn’t going back to farming! He slaughtered his oxen and burned his plowing equipment. Elisha burned a bridge--going back to his old way of life was not an option. Like the old song says, “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.”
Acts 19:19 records another instance of “pryo-discipleship.” It says, “A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty-thousand drachmas.” This ritual brought closure to a chapter of their lives in dramatic fashion.
Last week’s evotional explored the topic of temptation. Sometimes we need to take extreme measures to avoid temptation. That’s what these disciples did in Acts 19. They built a bonfire and burned the source of temptation.
This week an NCCer confessed some sin issues to another NCCer and gave me permission to tell their story. They invited a friend over and together they filled three garbage bags with CDs and DVDs and books. Not all of them were sinful in and of themselves, but they were a source of temptation. Part of moving on is not allowing ourselves the ability to go back.
In the world of aviation, the point of no return is the critical point in the flight where remaining fuel is insufficient for a return to the departure point. Sometimes we need to burn a plow or burn a book or burn a bridge so we can move on.