When Moses entered the Tent of Meeting to speak with the LORD, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the ark of the Testimony. And he spoke with him. – Numbers 7:89

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 31, 2012): Numbers 7

There are a number of places that I admit I just feel out of place. I have always felt like the odd man out at a party. I think that part of the problem is that I often just do not know what to do. As long as there is some sort of program, I can fill in the appropriate responses. But when that purpose disappears, the anxiety inside of me begins to grow. I feel the same way at the pastoral gatherings that I attend. Often I just do not seem to fit in - what is important to other pastors is seldom what is important to me. I am currently struggling with a ministerial leadership position. It is not that I do not desire to help out or to make a difference. But my struggle is that there is a very real difference between what I feel is important and what the other ministers seem to need at their meetings. And all the discrepancy does is drive in the feeling that I really do not belong.

I have a suspicion that it is a feeling that a lot of people experience. We go through life living as outsiders in the places that surround us. Some of us have the ability to pretend we belong better than the rest of us, but we all find ourselves in places where we feel that we just do not belong. And when we feel that way, there is no greater experience than being invited into that place by someone we know belongs. To have them stand beside us and validate us in that place, in spite of all the insecurity we are suffering through inside.

It is interesting that one of the effects of the law being passed down from God was that the law excluded Moses from the presence of God. The task of ministering in the presence of God would now be the task of Aaron and all of his descendants. And yet, God still invites Moses into a place that where he no longer belonged. In spite of all of his insecurities, God still invited him into his presence – a place where God and Moses could talk.

Maybe a greater mystery is that God also invites us into the same place. For the one that dedicates himself to the mysteries of his grace, the invitation stands. And we get to talk to him as a man speaks to a friend – we speak to him face to face, in spite of the fact that it is a place where we know we really do not belong.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers 8