Even Moses was not indispensable.

About a week ago while out shopping for bins to store Christmas decorations,I was talking with my daughter about how I liked storage containers and organzing. She took a double take to see if she heard right, and then questioned me with a surprised-"You organized?" It took me back a bit. Believe it or not, I was once considered organized. Yet as I thought about my daughter's reaction, I couldn't exactly blame her. My current life flies at me so quickly, I, in no stretch of the imagination, would come across as organized.

At first I felt slightly wounded. What happened to that person I knew as organized? Upon deeper reflection, I began to realize that there were a few traits that I once counted as concrete in the foundation of who I was..that no longer stood. As I reflected further, it brought to mind the older adults that I work with and the fact, that they too have probably lost out on some of their traits that they found to be tried and true. Perhaps Mary had the best memory this side of every elephant in the zoo. Then one day a friend noted that she hasn't been remembering all the birthdays she once did. In fact, she may have forgotten a few altogether in the past year. Belinda has always been known for her singing voice, and now that her empheseyma has taken over, her voice doesn't hold the same melodic fervor it once did. Oscar could hit any ball out of the park. Now he sits on the sidelines and coaches his grandson on the fundamentals of baseball.

Its not easy, but all of us at one point in our lives need to relinquish the roles that God has assigned and move onto other roles. We need to remember that we are not the roles we play. Underneath it all, we are God's creation and destined to be where we are at each point along the road. St. Therese of Leisiux learned through her time as a cloistered nun and through her eventual illness..'as I become less and less, He comes to be more.'

Now more than a week after these musings, I opened my Bible up to the first chapter of Joshua and began reading: "After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said the Joshua son of Nun, Moses'aide 'Moses my servant is dead. Now then you and all these people get ready to cross the Jordan river into the land I am about to give to them--the Israelites.'

It struck me...like a 'I could've had a V8 commercial'. We all have our roles to play, but time marches on, and God will use anyone to set his people free. It's humbling. It's not about me after all.

In this world, we all want to hold onto the adjectives and labels which make us important and worthwhile in society. It may be, best salesperson, great public speaker, writer, quickwitted, best chef, decorator etc... But when we hold onto these labels as our main identity, we put ourselves at risk at holding our own selves and talents up for idolatry. We soon become fearful of losing the talents that God gave us to share and to use "for such a time as this."