Egypt in the Rear-View Mirror

I had an Israelite in the wilderness moment this week. You know the story. They were in brutal bondage to the Egyptians, forced to slave day after day in the mud pits and fields to make bricks for the Pharoah's building projects. Year after year they had called out to the Eternal for deliverance and year after year there was no answer. Finally, after many years of toil and hardship, through an amazing sequence of miraculous events, God delivered the Israelites from bondage. 

 They weren't more than a few weeks on the road out of Egypt when they began to staring into the rear view mirror, lamenting the life they had left behind. "We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt" they exclaimed, "the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!" (Num. 11:5) 

 Their whining always seemed kind of ridiculous to me. How could people who had been so downtrodden desire to go back to that life? 

Well, this week the answer to that question became a little clearer and suddenly their whining, although definitely wrong, didn't seem quite so ridiculous anymore. 

 Last Monday I started a new job. It's a job that promises great opportunities for growth and development. It will allow me to work from home a couple of days a week, saving commute time and increasing the precious time I'm able to spend with my family. My wife actually found the job listing because she had sensed that I was growing weary and frustrated at my current job and new I was somewhat a square peg in a round hole there. I had held on for quite awhile, hoping things would turn around, that I would find my niche. But year after year, I just became more and more unhappy. So when the offer came, after long consideration, I accepted the position. 

 About mid-way through my first week at this new job a funny thing began to happen. I began to miss my old job. The office I had there was much bigger than my new space. The computer equipment wasn't as nice. I was informed that because of a deadline that had to be met by the end of October, I might have to work overtime for which, because I'm now salaried, I wouldn't receive any extra compensation, and to top it all off, there seemed to be more traffic congestion on my commute to work than I had experienced before. 

In the face of these new obstacles, the problems and frustrations I experienced at my old job faded from memory and mid week, I was feeling like I had made a big mistake...that is until my wife, upon listening to my distressed whining that Wednesday evening, lovingly reminded me of all of the reasons I had made the change. Thanks to her, and some time in prayer and reflection, I realized that these new obstacles were in fact minor compared to the benefits and opportunities this new job offers. I'm now more confident than ever that I made the right move. 

Now I spent only a day or so in distress over this crisis. Some people spend a great deal of their lives looking back at Egypt in the rear view mirror, lamenting over a life that could have been, should have been, had different decisions been made. It's a strange kind of slavery they subject themselves to. Paul says in Hebrews 12:1 "...let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us..." That's advice the Israelites would have done well to follow and advice that we need to be reminded of from time to time as well. A race car driver who spends all of his time looking in the mirror is not going to win many races. While we're on this road of life, we would do better to look ahead at where God is taking us, focusing on the hope for the future rather than looking back lamenting about what we have left behind. I finished this week much more upbeat than I had been on Wednesday. I'm still missing my old office but it's worth sacrificing for the chance to work in my pajamas a couple days. More important than that though, is that I'm now looking through the windshield instead of what's in the rear view mirror.