#1 WHAT DO YOU HAVE
This series “What Is In Your Hand” is based on the Biblical point of view and my journey with God, especially in my new seasons here in the Netherlands. How this is will be connected one another. How the word of God showing me and other people who read this series, the way of life in a new season. What can we do and what we have in our hand.
This series title itself is taken from the story of Moses in the Bible. Why I’m interested in Moses life - One of the greatest leader that ever lived - because I want to learn from his life and from the Bible. God gives Moses a mission to release the Israelites from Egypt. In the middle of briefing about the mission impossible, God asked this question “What that’s in your hand”. Moses only had a staff in his hand. To do a crazy mission with only a staff in his hand. Are you crazy God?
Why I said this is mission impossible or crazy? Because Moses doesn’t any army, money or anything that worth to fight the Pharaoh to release his nations. If you calculate with human point of view calculations, Moses is definitely is not matched to Pharaoh. Pharaoh had everything. Army, slave, money, power, people, advisor, strategy, named it all. Compare to what Moses had right now. Only a staff. Even though Moses had a military trained in Egypt, it still feels like a suicide missions. One guy - the ex of prince of Egypt - had a mission to free the Israelites from slavery. The biggest slave labor that Egypt had. The slave that builds the storage city Phatom and Rameses for Pharaoh. Moses are not Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) or Jason Bourne or James Bond who can do one man mission to save the world. Are you kidding God?
Even Moses himself asked God, “Why me??!” He doesn’t believe or have a confidence to take this task. It’s so different with Abraham or Noah. When God showed to them and sign a mission, they said “Yes Sir!” Without hesitation, no question, no doubt, no argue. Just do it.
But Moses is like me or I like Moses. I had similar questions. I’m asking God, not “why me God?” But I’m asking “Why Netherland God? Seriously, God?” I think we both - Moses and I are still human. Probably you also ever asked a similar question? “Why God??! This mission is too big. Can I do that?” Hey, if you think like that, you are not alone.
But our God is not joking around. He probably will answer “Why you? Why not?!” He chooses Moses, you and I to do His mission. Maybe you are not the first person that he offer to do the mission. But He choose us. Everyone has their own specific designated mission of life. It is His prerogative right of God to choose the people. God wants to show that He can do so much more than we can imagine. But the next question is “Are you willing to accept His calling into your life?”. God gives us a free will to answer and respond His calling. Do you dare to do it or not.
“God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!” Ephesians 3:20 MSG
## Moses Early Life
Okay. Are you ready to learn more? Let start it!
Are you familiar with Moses story? Or do you ever seen in the movie “Prince of Egypt” from Dreamworks or the latest movie “Exodus Gods and Kings” played by Christian Bale? For you - who are not familiar with the Bible or the story of Moses, I’m going to give a little bit recap of Moses from the Bible point of view. Not based on the Hollywood movie. Let see based on what the Bible has written.
A new king came to power in Egypt who didn’t know Joseph. He feels threatened by the number of Israelites in Egypt. He tries to crush them with slave labor. But the harder they worked, the more children they had. Until one point Pharaoh issued a general order to all his people, “Every boy that is born, drown him in the Nile.”
A woman becomes pregnant and had a son. She saw there something special from this baby. She didn’t give up. She put the baby in a little basket and set afloat in the reeds at the edge of the Nile. Pharaoh’s daughter saw the basket-boat floating and found a baby. She knows that is a Hebrew baby. She is taking risks against her dad who order to kill all the Hebrew boy. She adopted him as her son. She named him Moses (Pulled-out). She pay a Hebrew woman to nurse him until the boy was older. Moses was raised by his mother until 12 years old. After that he was taken to the royal palace.
Okay, stop right here.
Do you ever wondering why God called Moses at the age of 80? Yeah, Moses was 80 when he received God mission. Why God doesn’t call Him when He is young, energetic? When he was a prince of Egypt.
Maybe the story would be like in Star Wars the Last Jedi (sorry for a little bit spoiler). Kylo Ren is the grandson of Darth Vader. (If you are not following Star Wars, at least you know Dart Vader right?) The same like his grandpa, Kylo Ren was a Jedi who become the dark side. But somehow he is connected with other Jedi named Rey. The Supreme Leader (his highest master) sign Ren to kill Rey. Instead, he killed her, he killed the Supreme leader itself. Someone from the dark side killed his own leader. Rey tries to turn Ren to the side of the Resistance but he doesn’t want to. What would happen if Ren becoming good again and helping the resistance?
Feels like Moses. Moses is an Israelite who adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter. So, now he is the grandson of Pharaoh. He received the highest civil and military training under Pharaoh. This was not written in Exodus but in the Act. Bible wrote that he was educated in the best school in Egypt. He was equally impressive as a thinker and an athlete (Act 7:22, MSG). Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in both speech and action. (Act 7:22, NLT). So, probably he had several chances to get close with Pharaoh and he could kill Pharaoh. Released the Israel from slavery and back to the promise land. Yeah.. That could happen if I am the script writer or if I can choose the alternative story. That plot is possible, but the reality is not like my imagination.
Moses did kill someone. Instead Pharaoh, he killed an Egyptian who hit a Hebrew - one of his relatives. Moses assumed his fellow Israelites would realized that God send him to rescue them, but they didn’t (Act 7:25, NLT). The next day Moses saw two men of Israel fighting each other. He want to stop it. But, sorry Moses, they didn’t saw you as hero. Instead, they said “Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian?”. Then Moses panicked. Pharaoh heard about it and tried to kill Moses. He ran away to the land of Midian. At age 40 he become a murderer and a fugitive.
Moses life is changed when he helps the daughters of Jethro - the priest of Midian. Moses comes to rescue and helped them water the sheep. The new season is coming. He finally can a little bit settle down and married Jethro’s daughter. He is working with his father in law as a shepherd.
If Moses was called when he was young, he is not ready. He has a good heart, but the character is not mature enough. He killed a man just because that man hit one of his relatives. More than anything else. God knows the best time for everyone of us. He cares for our character more than the achievements or the mission itself.
## God’s calling
Forty years later, in the desert near Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning bush. The Lord sending Moses back to Egypt. The same man who they had rejected and demanded “Who made you a ruler and judge over us”. God send Moses to be their ruler and savior.
Moses was hesitate “but why me?” And he objected God, “They won’t trust me. They won’t listen to a word I say. They’re going to say, ‘ GOD? Appear to him? Hardly!’” That’s why God said, “What’s that in your hand?” “A staff.”” (Exodus 4:2 MSG)
When God called you and I to do something, a mission of life. He doesn’t matter on how much do we have. How much your asset, your money in your bank account or how much bitcoin you have. Do you have a luxury car or penthouse yet? God didn’t ask that. God owned everything is this world. He is the one who created it.
World often measure us from what he have. How many asset do you have. In the economic world they gonna measure how much is your asset in two category : tangible asset (asset that have a physical substance, such as currencies, buildings, real estate, inventories, etc) and intangible asset (lack of physical substance and usually are very hard to evaluate; such as patents, copyrights, trade names, etc).
So often we are caught up and insecure with the how much tangible asset do we have. Can we start the mission, the season, the living dream we want with what we have? Do we have enough money, people or resource to start it?
I grew up in Java island. Javanese people have some calibration to measure other. It called “Bobot, bibit, bebet). Specially when they want to have son/daughter in law or spouse. They will measure your bobot - the quality, education; bibit - who is your parents, the blood line; and bebet - what is your social status.
I’m so grateful! God doesn’t look us with our status. Are you a royal member or a fugitive or a murderer or just an ordinary person. He doesn’t look on your blood line. You can be born from a prostitute line and He still choose you. Jesus was! Rahab - the prostitute is recorded as one of the ancestor of Jesus.
It doesn’t matter how old are you now! You can be as young like David when he was anointed as the next king of Israel. Or you can be as old like Moses. In the age of 80. Colonel Sanders start KFC at age 65 years old. Age doesn’t stop God to use us.
Definitely it doesn’t matter how much you have right now. When God asked Moses “What’s that in your hand?” In Moses hand is only “a staff.” Nothing more. If you compare what Moses have, between his earlier life in Egypt and when God appeared to him, so what he have? How much asset that he have.
Previously Moses was a prince of Egypt. Surely he have a status. Money is not a problem at all for him. But then his turned upside down. He killed an Egyptian. He lost his status and royal palace. He was wanted by the Pharaoh. He have ran away and let go all the facility and the comfort zone. When he was a prince. He could said something and his assistant will do anything what he said. But now he have to work hard as a shepherd. No more luxury things, make up and perfumes (Ancient Egyptian both men and women wore make up and perfumes of myrrh and cinnamon). He is a simply a man who tried to build his life again.
I personally can relate to Moses story. I was born in a wealthy family. Born in a big house in WR Supratman street, Surabaya. It’s in the downtown of the city. That area is like the Menteng area in Jakarta or Manhattan in New York. Some of my uncle and aunty said that the wealth of grandparents will last until 7 generations, but yet it was gone in parents generation. My parents divorce when I was around 4 or 5 years old and we are economically down spiral until we don’t have anything.
There was some low point in our family. We couldn’t barely eat or place to stay. I still remember that there was a time me and my sister, we ate only with white rice, we put some water and salt on it, so we have some flavor and a kerupuk (Indonesian chips) on top. But we are still happy and life!
There’s another moment with my brother. Both of us that night somehow we don’t have a place to stay. So what we do is we sit the whole night in the lobby of Hotel Indonesia. Now is known as Kempinski Hotel. The hotel staff asked couple times why we are there. One little girl and one young boy who sit the whole night in the lobby. I was seven years old and my brother is thierdtien years older than me. We said, we need to wait our parents. They have a meeting upstairs. So they let us stay.
Guess what, during my wedding day, my parents in law choose the hotel to stay in Jakarta is in Kempinski Hotel. Among thousand hotel that they can choose, they pick that hotel. In some way God just wants to show me about His faithfulness. That He never forsake me.
Our financial condition didn’t stop God to work through our family. I can see His favor and grace upon me is so real. I can study in the best school (and one of the expensive schools too) in Surabaya with scholarship. I had several other scholarship in Jakarta. I don’t have much resources or money. That’s why I become so creative to do with everything that we had. It makes me creative and stronger.
Years ago, my family business was bankrupt. My saving drowned. I couldn’t pay the rent and my gasoline. I couldn’t work because my doctor said I have to bed rest for six month. The doctor is good friend of mine. Their family did not let me pay the bill. I cannot afford to pay it. All I see is not a single of day that God let me down. I can see His protection is so real. God send a lot of people to help me through that season.
I also had several adopted - foster - extended family. In Indonesia we called it “Keluarga angkat”. One of them is Anita Wulandari, she used to be my boss in Trans TV, but we become so close and she took me as her own younger sister. Audrey’s Dad also took me as one of his daughters. We called him Daddy PIN - Paulus Immanuel Nugroho.
Until the day my father died on 7 February 2016, he didn’t bounce back as in the material ways. Several years after the divorce, he teaches music and guitar. He had thousands of mentee. He works full time in a church. He was a pastor. Serving a long aside with my uncle Ps. Abraham Tanusaputra, the founder of Bethany Church in Surabaya. His legacy is not in the form of earthly wealth. He is not rich as he used to be. He has a super simple life. But his legacy is eternal. Money cannot compare to it. He can see all his children is living in harmony. It’s priceless. Until the end of his life, we can see him faithfully serve God. He always found to be faithful to do his work and serving God. Teaching and supporting the young generations.
Two weeks after my father passed away, I had a songwriting session with JPCC Worship. Together with Billy Simpson, Winny Jessica and Sheila Permataaska we wrote a song “Sampai Akhir Hidup” (Faithful till the end of life). My father’s life story inspired me to write the lyrics. I want to be faithful till the end of my life. One year later, that song was recorded in JPCC Worship - Made Alive. Beautifully sung by my dear friend Umbu.
God cares with what you have right now. He can do so much more with what you have right now, if you trust Him.
Maybe some of you said, “but I don’t know what God called me to do? Do I have a specific mission?” Yes, maybe you don’t know or don’t have a specific mission yet like Moses have. For me, God doesn’t say something to me like Moses. To release someone from slavery. No, not like that. But I know that I am here with my husband to build our own family in Netherland.
If you don’t know your specific calling of life yet, just keep on doing the best you can do. Do the best what is in your hand. One thing for sure He called us to be His son and daughter - To be the light and salt of the world. The way to do that mission doesn’t need much of what you have in your hand. He needs from you and me; it is our availability. Are you willing to say “Yes Lord!” with or without hesitation. Just only a yes.
So, what do you have?
Your greatest asset is you! You as a person. As the image of God. Your greatest tangible asset that can be touch is not your money, currency, house, but you! You and I, as a son and daughters of God. "A staff" or anything else that you have is just a tool. But your willingness and availability to say “Yes Lord!” and trust God ultimately is the key to your life and feature. Your intangible asset is in your obedience, trust in God, and so much more.
Are you willing to do the mission? Do you trust God completely?
This series will talk more about the intangible asset that we have. The asset that often we didn’t realize that we have it because it’s not appeared and you cannot touch physically.
