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Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am” (Exodus 3:1-4 NKJV)

Moses. Here is a man who knows the meaning of mundane, consistent and normal. He had now spent about 40 years doing the same thing over and over, not to mention the previous 40 years from an earlier life in Egypt. Here was his job: take your father-in-law's sheep (when you want the girl, you will do what it takes) out to pasture, spend the day making sure they don't get eaten and then take them back to the safety of the corral. Mundane, consistent and normal. Until one day, after almost 80 years, everything changed in an instant.

On this day, Moses was headed out to pasture like every other day, like the last 40 years, when something happened that caught his attention.

A burning bush.

But before he goes over to the burning bush, look what he says, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight." Do you know what that means? It means he had the choice to not turn aside from his day-to-day life and see what God was doing! He could have kept doing what was so familiar to him, but he made the conscience decision to turn aside and see what the Lord was doing. And look at the very next line.

"WHEN the Lord saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him..."

What? God waited until Moses made the decision to put his everyday ordinary life on pause, look aside, and THEN God spoke to him. God waited until Moses recognized that He was in this moment and in this place and then decided to speak. And for Moses, this moment was the beginning of his earthly calling and why God placed him on this earth.

I want to be like Moses. But how many times am I rushing though breakfast, changing diapers, schedules, meetings, shopping lines, traffic jams, the gym, worship moments and times when I hear a gentle whisper but don't have time to pause and look aside? It's often these mundane moments where God shows up and changes everything in an instant, but it's our job to start recognizing where He is breaking into our lives. And, if we are faithful in recognizing the little moments, he can trust us to be faithful for the bigger moments.

He might just be waiting for you to turn aside so that He can start speaking.

Today ask: Jesus, can you highlight a moment today where you are trying to break into my life?

JN