Reshaping Our Lives: Letting Go of Old Mindsets

Exodus 3-4

Giving up old habits can be tough. Even though you will see promises on social media about changing your life in 21 days, it can take anywhere between two and five months to change a habit. When we think about habits, we usually think about behaviors, but thoughts and beliefs are habits too. Letting go of old mindsets can be just as hard as quitting smoking or starting an exercise routine—maybe even harder. As we look at reshaping our lives during transitions so that we can emerge on the other side, we have to acknowledge that we sometimes need to give up old mindsets. In the messy middle of transitions, we often have to shed things that simply do not work in our new realities or are keeping us stuck.

Moses is a perfect example of someone who had to give up his old mindset. He fled his home and ended up in the wilderness after losing his temper and killing a taskmaster who had been abusing the enslaved Hebrews. He is now a fugitive. He can never go home again (or so he believes). As he is in the desert tending the flock of his father-in-law, he encounters the burning bush, from which the voice of God speaks to him. God tells Moses that He has seen the suffering of the enslaved Hebrews and is sending Moses back to Egypt to liberate the people.

Moses has reservations, to say the least. After being driven from his home for the killing, he believes that if he returns, he will be killed. He sees himself as a fugitive and expects nothing more than the life he has now. He offers plenty of excuses for why he cannot return and do what God is asking him to do. God, however, has an answer for every one of Moses’ objections. Moses needs to see himself as someone called and chosen by God, not as a hopeless fugitive destined to live in exile. His past is keeping him from seeing the future. He has to shed his mindset of unworthiness, guilt, and fear to embrace a mindset of trust in the Lord.

Our old mindsets keep us from moving forward, from trying new things, and from emerging on the other side of our lifequakes. Moses had to change the way he thought about himself and about God’s power and trustworthiness in order to answer his calling. Our own old narratives can block us from embracing a new purpose and God’s call. How many of us are held back in messy places by thoughts like, “I’m not good enough” or “I’m a failure”? What belief about yourself, the world, others, or God do you need to shed to move into a new season?

Rev. Dana Ezell