Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds. (Ex. 2:5)
“Everybody wants to start a revolution, but nobody wants to do the dishes,” reads a sign in my mentor’s office. On the landscape of Exodus, Moses looms large as the deliverer of the Jewish people precisely because of the big moments he’s involved with (the parting of the Red Sea, receiving the Ten Commandments, and so on). But behind every one of these miraculous moments were hundreds of small, seemingly unnoticed choices that stacked into an obedient heart.
Sometimes the most revolutionary things happen because someone is paying attention and being faithful in the day to day, in doing the dishes or taking a meal to a friend—or, in Moses’ case, because Pharaoh’s daughter happened to be walking amongst the reeds to bathe. While not every ordinary action gives rise to producing heroes as significant as Moses, this story does beg the question: Who needs us to notice them as we go about our daily routines? Who might we raise into maturity, discipleship, and leadership by our everyday acts of faithfulness? Who stands to benefit from the things we do when nobody’s looking?
The only way to find out is to be faithful amongst the reeds—to be a person who takes notice. And when God brings someone to you there in the seemingly mundane, help him or her discover who God is calling them to be.
Build habits of faithfulness into your everyday rhythm.
Ethan Linder is the college, young adult, and connections pastor at College Wesleyan Church in Marion, Indiana, where he resides with his wife and son. Ethan enjoys running, reading, and roasting coffee.
© 2019 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.
Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
