Stick uh gum

God is so organized. As a teacher, I am more and more aware of how organized God is. And how unorganized I am. Trying to keep track of what my students have learned, are struggling to learn, and have not learned… I get behind.

God is so organized in my life in how He teaches me one thing, and then keeps it as a theme for more things as He takes me deeper.

I recently wrote about Moses. You know… I had dubbed Moses actually really differently than a lot of people tend to. I guess I’ve always seen him as the underdog. The unlikely candidate for some huge God stuff. I know he was called the most humble man alive at some point. That’s cool. But I guess I just assumed that was cause he knew he didn’t have much to offer without God.

Basically, I saw him as lowly, and never really saw how powerful of a Man of God he was.

Exodus 33:15 says “… if your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.”

Moses found his strength and his fullest desire met with the presence of God. To the point that he was not willing to let the presence of God depart from him, even if that meant staying put where he was in the middle of nowhere with the Israelites who would never stop complaining about anything.

He was satisfied with the presence of God.

As a teacher, I think about my students. They complain all the time. They complain about things I know are silly. I know better. Moses knew better too when the People wouldn’t stop nagging him.

But he was still satisfied. Moses was still satisfied with the presence of God. He would rather stay where he was, likely making the Israelites even more upset. As long as the presence of God did not flee from them.

I imagine what kind of radical faith that takes… I don’t know that I have that. I love my students. Truly, I do. So don’t misread this example. But would I choose to stay teaching and working with all these kids nonstop instead of get time to breathe? If the presence of God were the differing factor? I like to think I would. I want the presence of God to satisfy me that deeply.

The word satisfied makes me think of Thanksgiving. When we’re satisfied, and needing nothing ( as in food), we usually sorta just chill and hang out with the fam, right? We appreciate just being together. Somehow the word “satisfy” just makes me think of that moment we all retire into watching the game, reading, just talking or laughing with family…

Satisfy comes from a Latin word which means enough or sufficient. It means we’re lacking nothing.

How satisfied am I with the presence of God? Am I filled enough to BE satisfied in the first place? What would it take for me to be filled with the presence of God, so that I am satisfied?

I’m not satisfied like I am on Thanksgiving when I just grab a protein bar before I head to work.

I’m not satisfied when I pop in a piece of gum to distract me from being hungry when I’m working a long day.

And so can be my relationship with God. Like a stick of gum.