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| Red Sea Road from Prince of Egypt |
If Moses was a type of Christ
— then didn't both of their exoduses
down Red Sea Roads
begin with hands raised,
arms stretched out,
in cruciform surrender
to the will and way of God?
+ Waymaker
Last night, my wife and I were having a conversation about hope. Then, less than 12 hours later, I read this excerpt below from Ann Voskamp's Waymaker while I was waiting for my oldest son to get an x-ray on his busted ankle.
Perhaps it was for such a time as this.
If so, thank you again, Ann.
And thank You, God.
Waymaker
The Sign of the Cross
+ pgs. 153-154
A cross-shaped life is an exodus-shaped life: always a way through.
I'm standing in front of
my own impossible Red Seas
everywhere I turn —
seeing no clear way from
where I am ...
where is my holy imagination
for the otherworldly ways of God?
What if:
The way through opens up
where we kneel down into
another way of being?
By growing a new way, thinking a new way, being a new way, by embracing a cruciform way of life.
Waymaker
The Revelatory Dark
+ pgs. 155-156
The cloud — lit up the night (Exodus 14:19-20) ... a cloud that's fire in the night? Who would've ever imagined that?
A shroud of cloud with a flaming blaze at its center, "to give them light on the way they were to take" (Nehemiah 9:12). I turn to the window again, like I'm seeing what I've never seen before:
What's clouded in mystery
is a flame to light the way.
The cloud over you is also the light before you. Clouds can be light.
There will be days when I think
this is a mocking joy,
any of these dark clouds
lighting the way,
and I will weep,
but there will be days
when I know it and
am not afraid:
Terrible clouds can be torches.
Even the dark is not truly dark
— everything can be a lighting thing.
Even the darkness
will not be dark to You;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to You.
+ Psalm 139:12
Within the clouds is a light
to lead the way.
Mystery holds revelation.
Trust how the mystery cloud
leads to the mystery of manna,
still, and taste grace here.
If you ever needed a sign,
this was it:
a cloud on fire.
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| Pillar of Fire in Prince of Egypt But isn't the Word, this Spirit-book that I'm holding in my hands, the Spirit Himself, a sign for all time now, a certain revelation of God? Like the pillar of cloud-fire once led, the presence of the Spirit-fire leads now. Like God gave the children of Israel a cloud-fire guide, He gives His children now the Holy Spirit as a Guide. First, the "LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way" (Exodus 13:21 ESV), and now it is said of His children: "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God" (Romans 8:14 ESV), which means there is a light that isn't just at the end of the tunnel, but there is Light Himself with us now who leads the whole way through. The Mystery of His Spirit leads through every mystery. You have your own cloud aflame, and it is the comfort of the Holy Spirit. You have your own Holy Ghost to lead you through the thick dark. The Word under all my wounds, it's moving, it's speaking, it's rising like a Red Sea Road of its own. The Spirit-book speaks to the soul caught between a rock and a hard place, and its every word is a revelatory story of an exodus out, through the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Waymaker Soul Examination + pgs. 157-159 I underline it in ink: Israel saw what God did that day (see Exodus 14:30-31). Israel saw the great power of God; Israel reflected on what God has done; Israel examined how the hand of God had forged an impossible way. At the end of the day, Israel examined God's hand — and it changed their hearts. Maybe when we relive the day, we see more reasons to believe in the Lord. Maybe part of the way out of the hard is to examine our hearts. Maybe there's no exodus without an examine. Hadn't John Wesley, George Whitefield, Ignatius all made it a daily practice to examine their hearts, scout out the topography of their souls, locate themselves in relation to God, to nurture their relationship with God? Hadn't David said, "I have considered my ways / and have turned my steps to your statutes" (Psalm 119:59) — because God Himself said, "Consider your ways" (Haggai 1:5 ESV)? Hadn't Paul implored: "Each one must examine his work" (Galatians 6:4 NASB)? But I didn't. Was I too often feeling lost, like there was no way because I hadn't made a habit of examining the way I was on? Maybe it was more than high time for my heart to murmur it with all of God's people: "Let us examine and probe our ways, and let us return to the LORD" (Lamentations 3:40 NASB 1995). Daily experiences may teach us, but daily examining our hearts is used by God to change us. Unless we make time for daily reflection, we can be making a road in the wrong direction. I am learning exodus words — "There is a way, a way through, a way forward!" There is a Red Sea Road. My own hope repertoire can change. I can surrender to imagination and miracles. I can be in Christ, imitate Christ, live the way of Christ, and I can learn the language of exodus, and I can find the Way. we can place ourselves in the path of God's grace and seek Him as Bartimaeus and Zacchaeus placed themselves in Jesus' path and sought Him. + Donald S. Whitney Waymaker Doxology or Dark + pgs. 159-161 And what comes after the exodus? Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying, "I will sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise Him, my father's God, and I will exalt Him." (Exodus 15:1-2 ESV) I had once been dared by a friend to record one hundred — hey, how about one thousand — gifts from the Giver, and I had been fool enough to do it. I'd seized a pen and wielded it like a weapon against the dark and jotted down gifts, moments of grace, throughout the day, and for years I'd fought for joy because any life worth living demands that you refuse to let anything steal your joy because what steals your joy, steals your strength. And I'd radically discovered: If Jesus chose to give thanks for the cup of suffering since, out of a cosmos of possibilities, thanksgiving was the preferred weapon to face and fight the dark, do I have any better way? And if Jesus can give thanks even on the night He was betrayed, then I can give thanks in the midst of anything, and there is always something to be thankful for and thanksgiving always precedes the miracle of more God. A habit of thankfulness is always our exodus out of bitterness. Christ-exaltation always leads to some kind of exodus. Any way of life that finds a way through has always had the cadence of doxology. Stillness to Know God Attentiveness to Hear God Cruciformity to Surrender to God Revelation to See God Examine to Return to God Doxology to Thank God A map, a way to a meaningful life. That was it: Finding a way through was really about finding a way of life, a rule of life. What if the question is never "What's the way out of this?" but "What way can I be in this?" The way through happens wherever we stop focusing on how to get out of something and focus on what we can get out of this to become Christlike. “There’s no praying ‘Thy Kingdom come’ until you’re living out ‘my kingdom’s done.‘” Freedom isn't about looking for a way out, but the Way deeper down, the Way to grow into more, to be pressed into the narrow pathway through. Waymaker SACRED Way — Selah + pgs. 163-164 The Red Sea Road — a SACRED way of life! Every step of the way through that Red Sea Road — Stillness, Attentiveness, Cruciformity, Revelation, Examine, Doxology — leading out of bondage to bonding with God is a sacred way of life that the WayMaker is working to set me apart for Him! The story may seem to make no sense, but the WayMaker's working all the lines into a way through it all, to be in sacred union with you. Even when you can't see that He's doing SACRED work, He's working to part waters to set you apart for a deeper communion with Himself. Ellie Holcomb 2017 A.D. |
We buried dreams,
Laid them deep into the earth behind us;
Said our goodbyes
At the grave, but everything reminds us
God knows we ache.
When He asks us to go on,
How do we go on?
We will sing to our souls,
"We won't bury our hope!
Where He leads us to go,
There's a red sea road."
When we can't see the way,
He will part the waves
And we'll never walk alone
Down a red sea road.
How can we trust
When You say You will deliver us from
All of this pain
That threatens to take over us?
Well, this desert's dry,
But the ocean may consume
And we're scared to follow You ...
(Chorus)
Oh, help us believe
You are faithful, You're faithful.
When our hearts are breaking
You are faithful, You're faithful.
Oh, grant us eyes to see
You are faithful, You're faithful.
Teach us to sing
"You are faithful, You're faithful,
You're faithful!"
(Chorus)
Hope rises up from an empty grave.
Hope helps us stare
Hope helps us stare
into the face of everything we’ve lost
and every pain we’ve endured
and every pain we’ve caused,
and it says, “There’s more than this.
Healing is ahead.”
and every pain we’ve endured
and every pain we’ve caused,
and it says, “There’s more than this.
Healing is ahead.”
“… we believe that an unseen Hope
makes a Red Sea Road
when there seems to be no way.”
makes a Red Sea Road
when there seems to be no way.”
Other Hopeful Considerations:
Next Post:
Many blessings of peace and presence,
Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan
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