Taking Comfort In A Shown Glory I
by Michael Doyle

In a cloud of witnesses, 52 points of light
Can be revealed to get our perspective right.
In considering the merits within each story,
We come to understand the power and the glory.

Having examined the Patriarchal Era as told
The understanding of Moses starts to unfold.
We begin Exodus, and Deuteronomy tells with grace
Moses is the only prophet to know God face-to-face.

Moses was a hero with miraculous signs in his time.
At least his wonders seem so in my humbled mind.
Joseph brought Israel's tribe so they would survive
Into Egypt, until enslaved, this family would thrive.

Like a comfortable inn, what is pleasant along the way
Is not necessarily the home in which we are meant to stay.
Despite the respite, I know that I am not traveling alone,
In finding that the smallish pleasures do not make a home.

Time passes, and so does what passes for a lasting memory,
Pharaohs come and go, and so does what has been a legacy.
The story is that for 40 years, Moses lived as royalty,
Until he walked away from the abuses of Hebrew slavery.

Right answers do not always lead to the right conclusion,
As in the case of Moses, he chose violence in confusion.
For forty years the wilderness shapes the man to come,
As Moses learns what he must do to lead in God's kingdom.

Big dreams require the dreamer's growth and maturation.
This comes in steps and rarely without personal evolution.
God readies the person that is to be what they become,
All, as it is said, for the good of the holy kingdom.

Burning bushes speak the future of what's meant to be,
Though such clarion visions only happen infrequently.
We redline life rushing full tilt in our given hour,
And in doing so, we often miss how our God empowers.

God instructed Moses to face Pharaoh toe-to-toe.
He was to demand that Pharaoh let God's people go.
Our callings, like his, seem beyond our capacity;
Riddled with self-doubt and feeling our inadequacy.

We push back against what we are called by God to do.
Humility is not insecurity; it's being true.
We must remember that God forms us for our purpose,
And we are to believe in God and live out our service.

The choice is ours to live by God-given dignity,
And in so doing, we are to live by God's authority. 
This means never bowing before unwarranted criticism,
And standing up to our challenges with true optimism.

Social media has opened us all to unjust comparison.
It is as though we live in a free-for-all competition.
Twenty four/seven we are compelled to shine our light,
And somehow, less than perfect is never quite right.

This is a modern-day game waged with no way to win.
The best that you are is the only fair comparison.
Living every moment of our lives before the eyes
Of competitive persons is to live our moments unwise. 

We are meant to love and to seek to encourage.
It is society's mistake that so many discourage.
The push back would be to fight back with love,
And to remember to live as if in Heaven above.

Moses had some validity to his spoken objection.
Chances are that we've all known some rejection.
We only need to understand Christ's majesty
To know that we are always in His full adequacy.

It's by reaching past ourselves that God comes to light.
When we have reached our end, we see Christ's full might.
And so began the journey under the desert's sky, 
With Moses' faltering lips, knowing obedience as his reply.

(c) April 13, 2026   Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved