Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“But Moses said in the Lord’s presence, ‘Since I am a poor speaker, why would Pharaoh listen to me?’
‘You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his land.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, October 4, 2021
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Sometimes I trip over my tongue. Or fully plant my foot right in my mouth. As much as I pride myself on being a good public speaker, the truth is that I can utterly fail to get a point across at times, or even stumble so much around my words that the recipient is left wondering if I’m quite stupid (or so I judge—I can’t read anyone else’s mind).
Regardless of my ability to speak, God calls me to do just that. To proclaim God’s justice and to work for it, to speak God’s love into the world and demonstrate it with my actions. And I’m not going to do it perfectly. Moses had Aaron to wordsmith the things that came to Moses through God. One wonders why God didn’t just bypass Moses completely and go straight to Aaron. But God didn’t. Moses had been chosen to lead God’s people and it didn’t matter what Moses’ abilities were. It was God who would lead through Moses. And so it is with us. If we open ourselves to what God is calling us to say and do, God will give us the words and the actions, and provide us with the community of people around us to help us get the appropriate message across.
Am I afraid of public speaking? How do I express God’s love in the world?