Today is Sunday.
Many of you will probably go to church.
Consequently, I thought it might be a good opportunity to
talk about one of my favorite stories in The Bible.
But before you exit out because you don’t consider
yourself a Christian,
I would like to invite you to still read this post.
The four lessons I am about to share with you have nothing
to do with faith.
They are four lessons anyone can learn from Moses.
To me, the story of Moses is one of the most intriguing
stories in The Bible.
I am certain many of you are familiar with the story of
Moses,
So I don’t want to bore you with a thorough summary.
But for the ones that haven’t read it or aren’t quite sure
how it goes,
Let me quickly summarize.
Who was Moses?
The story of Moses is told in the Book of Exodus but technically
starts in the Book of Genesis with the story of Abraham and his family.
In a nutshell, Moses was the one to draw Abraham’s
extended family (from Genesis) together and thus facilitated its evolution into
the nation of Israel.
He was the one to lead the Israelites out of the Egyptian oppression,
And essentially instated law and order, as directed to him
by God.
His upbringings were of the most peculiar kind.
He was born to a Hebrew woman by the name of Jochebed.
When he was an infant, Moses’ life was threatened by a Pharaoh order to kill all newborn
Hebrew boys.
The Pharaoh gave out such an order because he endeavored to reduce the population of Israelites.
His mother decided to
The Pharaoh gave out such an order because he endeavored to reduce the population of Israelites.
His mother decided to
Coincidentally, after having been hidden in the basket and
set afloat on the Nile River by his mother, Moses was found by the pharaoh’s
daughter.
The Pharaoh’s daughter adopted and nurtured Moses.
Thus, Moses grew up in the Egyptian Royal Family.
This turned out to be very lucrative for him, as he “was educated
in all the learning of the Egyptians, and [he] was a man of power in words and
deeds.” (Acts 7:22)
This leads us to the first lesson we can learn from Moses:
Become Educated
It seems obvious to me that God chose Moses to free the
Israelites from the Egyptian oppression and lead the way to the promised land because
he was well educated.
Besides the records remarking on his intellect in The Bible, the fact that he
was adopted into the Court of the Pharaoh, a group of leading intellectuals and
men of influence compiled by the Pharaoh himself, speaks for his level of education.
Moses was one of best thinkers of
his time, a statement that can be further argued for on grounds of records
emphasizing his extraordinary thinking and reasoning abilities.
Needless to say, this is the main reason I consider him a
Growthinker.
Hence, the first lesson we can learn from Moses is to become
educated.
Embrace Uniqueness
The second lesson we, as aspiring Growthinkers, can learn
from Moses is to embrace uniqueness.
Moses’ uniqueness stands out throughout the entire Book of
Exodus.
In fact, it is perhaps the most defining characteristic of Moses.
Besides his unique upbringing, it is interesting to note
that although he is given the title of Prophet, he, as a character, stands in
direct contrast with the first recipient of that title, Abraham (Genesis 20).
He shares close to no characteristics with Abraham whatsoever.
Moses married a wife of foreign descent with whom he had a
son, had little to no precedent, spent most of his time in solitude, was
characterized as not easily approachable and was even set apart from the very
community he was born to lead.
This is a very interesting part of Moses indeed.
Unfortunately, it is too voluminous for me to sufficiently
cover in this post.
But stay tuned, I will come back to it in the future.
In the context of the Book of Exodus, the most bizarre characteristic
of Moses is perhaps the fact that he had a speech defect, described as a “heaviness
of mouth and heaviness of tongue” in Exodus 4:10.
That is to say he wasn’t exactly eloquent, and while that
does cast the statement made about him being a “[…] man of power in words […]”
(Acts 7:22) in doubt, I would suggest to interpret words in terms of thinking
here, rather than spoken words.
This leads us to the third lesson we can learn from Moses:
Find a Way to Compensate for Your Shortcomings
Moses found a way to compensate for his shortcomings in the
speaking department.
He did so through God, who appointed Aaron, Moses’ priestly
brother to speak in his place.
What can we learn from this?
We can learn not to fall into despair,
But rather find a way to compensate for our shortcomings.
That we should not spend time and energy feeling sorry for ourselves,
But rather go out and find means of compensation.
There are very few shortcomings one cannot find a way of compensation
for.
The first step to compensation, however, is realization and
acceptance.
Realize and accept your shortcomings.
Only then will you be in a position to find means of
compensation.
Embrace Solitude
The fourth lesson we can learn from Moses is to embrace
solitude.
Throughout his life, Moses was very introverted.
He embraced his solitude, which is another of Moses’
defining characteristics.
This resulted in him being an outsider in every way
imaginable.
Heck, he was even an outsider to the very community he was
born to lead!
But it was in solitude that God spoke to him,
It was in solitude that he did his Growthinking.
Fight the fear of being alone and start embracing your me-time.
Because me-time is when you find your inner voice.
It was through solitude after all,
That Moses became the leader and prophet that he was.
Closing Thoughts
So there you have it folks,
The four lessons we, as Growthinkers, can learn from Moses.
Become educated,
Embrace uniqueness,
Find a way to compensate for your shortcomings,
And embrace solitariness.
If you haven’t done so, I would highly encourage you to read
the story yourself.
A Bible shouldn’t be too hard to find after all.
Stay tuned.
Did you miss any of the previous posts?
Not a problem! Just click on their title below!
To connect with me on Twitter, click here.
To connect with me on LinkedIn, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment