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The Lord said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." (Exodus 3:5-10)

During this time that Moses has been walking through his days, God has been orchestrating a kingdom story in which Moses would one day play a part. The pharaoh who had chased Moses out of Egypt is now dead, the slavery of the Israelites has become more oppressive, and God will not let their cries go without response.

Moses, of course, has questions. Who am I? How can I be expected to approach Pharaoh? What will I even say? God simply encourages Moses: "I am with you. Tell him I am that I am." What a change from tending the sheep the day before! God's plan may not always jibe with our "sensibilities," but an overwhelming experience with the Divine transcends our concerns and inspires our response. We must jump up! We must respond! We must act! A consuming encounter of this kind can produce an instant change in one's life. Moses immediately sets out for Egypt to free the Israelites. When some people transform overnight from ordinary to extraordinary, they do not need others' permission or convincing. They have experienced God's clear calling, and though they may have questions, they trust that God is who he says he is, and he will not leave.

I can identify with this in some way. When my wife, Donna, and I felt very clearly the Lord tell us to pack up our family in Philadelphia and move, our whole family visited Atlanta, Georgia, to meet with Bob Lupton, the president and founder of what was then Family Consultation Services Urban Ministries. Many times I'd stated, "I will never live in the South. I am a proud to be a Philadelphian." Philly was hard and had its problems, but it was my city and I was proud of it. But God has a way of changing your plans.

There were children growing up in Atlanta who didn't have many educational choices. Bob wanted to expand their options by starting a new school. Cornerstone, where we were working in Philly, had been started for the same purpose, but nevertheless we didn't feel at all qualified to begin this work in Atlanta. But we felt God moving us in this direction.

Bob showed us around the city. He'd begun working with families in the Atlanta area in the mid-1970s. Over the years, Bob's ministry had developed into a community development organization that provided housing, job training and jobs. He drove us by a house in Eastlake and said, "FCS is going to purchase that house and it will be available for a family in ministry." It was currently being used as a crack house, he admitted, and living in the vicinity might pose some challenges. But that news didn't discourage me; as soon as we'd driven into the neighborhood, God put it on my heart that this was where he wanted us. Donna squeezed my hand and I knew she felt the same way.