Me, My Team, and Moses

I am one person on a team of eight young adults from the Midwest learning to live and do ministry in Ghana, Africa. Looking at that last sentence, I’m sure you can understand that this team experiences conflict. We are still learning how to be young adults in the “real world”, how to live in Ghana, how to do ministry in Ghana, and how to work through our conflict with one another. I know God’s going to restore our team to complete unity. Progress is being made. Thankfully, the Redeemer will redeem our team. Hallelujah! Amen! (Ghana is rubbing off on me… expect me to yell that in church in the Midwest someday… but don't really.)

As we experience conflict and tension, I remind myself I need to rest in the Lord. Solid truth, yes; but there’s a problem with the way I do it. I tell myself that I just need to worry about my personal relationship with God. I can just focus on the Lord and trust that others are doing the same. I tell myself that all I really need to care about is ensuring that I am following Him. That’s all that really matters.

This week, I’ve realized how bogus that is.

Exodus 33 has been in my mind since this summer. We studied it in Bible study, and it reminded me that at this stage of my life, I connect with Moses from Exodus 3 and 4 where he is hesitant to follow God’s calling to Exodus 33 where he needs God to once again remind him of His promises. I have to continue writing reminders to myself where I insert my name where Exodus has Moses’s: “The Lord replied, ‘I will personally go with you, Kayla, and I will give you rest – everything will be fine for you’” (33:14). Oh, how peaceful that is. Oh, how I rest in it.

 

But this week, when I read on, I realized something. Moses doesn’t rest in that. He wants more. God being with Moses isn’t enough for Moses. He gets the bigger picture. “Then Moses said, ‘If you don’t personally go with us, don’t make us leave this place. How will anyone know that you look favorably on me – on me and your people – if you don’t go with us? For your presence among us sets your people and me apart from all other people on the earth” (33:15-16). 

Moses realizes that God isn’t glorified best in individuals. He’s glorified best in communities. It makes sense since God is a God in community as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As I’ve sat around trying to make sure my life demonstrates the presence of God, I’ve been neglecting the presence God desires to have in my team, my community. Ghanaians aren’t going to see me individually and understand what it means to be set apart in Christ. They’re going to look at me and see what it means to be Kayla Tronvold from the U.S. But Ghanaians can look at my team, a diverse group that cannot get along without the Lord, and see a body that is set apart in Christ. If I want my our ministry to be fully effective, I can’t be content with God going with me personally. I need to trust that God will go with us collectively. The collective is more important, more God-glorifying than the personal.

So although I can rest in the fact that God is going with me personally, I can rejoice in the fact that God will personally go with US so that His presence sets US apart and glorifies Him alone. Thank you, Moses, for understanding God in ways that I cannot without your recorded experiences. Thank you, God, for wanting more than a relationship with individuals, for wanting a relationship with communities.