Life experiences can lead to new opportunities

“Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the desert…”

— Exodus 15:22 (NIV)

Sometimes we feel like we’ve been wasting our time and spinning our wheels in a dead-end place where we’re destined to stay. But if we do our best to learn all we can where we are, God can bring about new things we haven’t dreamed of.

The biblical prophet Moses was an example of this. Moses spent 40 years of his life in the desert herding sheep and protecting his family. He had to know and understand how to live in those extreme, dry conditions.

Forty years later, God called him to take his desert knowledge to Egypt and lead the people away from the difficult living conditions there.

Moses couldn’t see how he was the man for the job. He made all kinds of excuses to God as to why he wasn’t the right one. However, Egypt was surrounded by many miles of hot, dry desert sands. God used Moses’ 40 years of dwelling in that same kind of environment to master his survival skills.

Now he was an expert and able to use his expertise to lead others through the desert. I doubt while Moses was living in the desert and searching for God that he’d ever believed God would use him that way.

There have been times in my life I couldn’t perceive that what I was going through could make a difference later on. I felt as if I was just trying to survive for the moment. But in hindsight, it was clear how God used the things I was learning in exciting new ways. It’s helped me to be the Christian writer and life coach I am today.

As we look to God, he can make known to us the skills, abilities and wisdom we have accumulated from our life circumstances. We can watch him weave the use of our simple survival skills in powerful new ways.

• Annettee Budzban is a Christian author, speaker, life coach and nurse. She can be contacted at annetteebudzban@aol.com.