Issue 112
How often have you heard people described with the word ‘but’ in the sentence? He’s great at strategy but not so good with people; she’s brilliant with words but hopeless with numbers; he’s an innovator but can’t carry things through; she’s superb at big picture thinking but no good at detail; he’s a leader but can’t do administration. So it goes on.
The chances are that if someone was to describe you, they could put a ‘but’ somewhere. There are some strange syndromes which surround these ‘buts’. You can find yourself feeling guilty about that area of your life or you can come to see it as a weakness or an area that needs to be developed. You can feel uneasy about the fact that you just don’t enjoy that aspect of yourself.
Well-meaning associates may suggest you get some training in that area to strengthen you. This may indeed strengthen you a little but I would suggest that these syndromes and their possible solutions are completely missing the point. In fact they’re so far off the point that they can get in the way of you responding to God’s call on your life.
When God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses was a great leader but he had trouble speaking. Whether it was his accent, a stammer or some form of impediment we don’t quite know but it was a problem to Moses. In this episode you can see how God handles the ‘but’. He turns it into an ‘and’ by adding another person. So Moses and Aaron (who was a great speaker but not such a good leader) went together to sort out the pharaoh problem.
This is not an uncommon working practice from God. David and Jonathan, Ruth and Naomi, Paul and Barnabas, Esther and Mordecai are just a few examples of how God turns ‘buts’ into ‘ands’.
Far from feeling guilty or inadequate about yourself, you can look outside of yourself for someone who loves the things you hate and is brilliant at what you aren’t wired up to do. They will help you respond to God’s challenges. Perhaps even more intriguingly, you can look for someone who desperately needs what you have, so he or she can flourish. Then you begin to realise this is how it is meant to be. No ‘buts’ – it just is.
Exodus 6:29- 7:7
28 Now when the LORD spoke to Moses in Egypt, 29 he said to him, “I am the LORD. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything I tell you.” 30 But Moses said to the LORD , “Since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me?” 1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. 2 You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, 4 he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. 5 And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.” 6 Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD commanded them. 7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.
In preparation for the next GEOFFSHATTOCKweekly, do feel free to email us your thoughts to wtw@worktalk.gs or leave a comment on our Facebook or Twitter profile. You can also visit our YouTube channel - get inspired and share Worktalk's vision with others.
Work well
Geoff Shattock
© Copyright 2024 Geoff Shattock
All GEOFFSHATTOCKweekly archives are for personal use only. For permission to use for any other purposes please email using the address below thank you.
WORKTALK LEARNING
1 Washington Villas, Hythe Road, Marchwood, Southampton, Hampshire, SO40 4WT United Kingdom
T:+44 (0)23 8086 8543
http://www.geoffshattock.com
comms@worktalk.gs
