When It's All About Following the Rules

As a young girl I enjoyed the playground game Red Light, Green Light because it was all about following the rules. If the leader called out, “red light,” you were to stop and stand still. If the leader yelled, “green light,” you were to run fast toward the finish line. If you didn’t obey the lights, you were out of the game.

Though my little legs couldn’t run too fast, I could follow the rules, stand or move as told, and often win the game!

Fast forward several decades to a bewildering season when my husband was told to move or lose his job. We were told to move away from our deeply rooted home, community, church, and family. Plus, our youngest son was a high school junior who didn’t want to go anywhere! We prayed for anything but a move.

At that point, my propensity for following rules seemed useful when I read what Moses told the Israelites as Pharaoh’s mighty army was in hot pursuit soon after they’d left Egypt: “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still” (Exodus 14:13-14). 

I envisioned my husband’s employer as the Egyptians. I contended that if I stood firm and held still and followed the rules, I, like the Israelites, would have the waters parted before me (Exodus 14:16). We’d find local employment, see our son graduate in his hometown, and continue to enjoy our very familiar life.

Yet, a few months later we were in another state, unpacking boxes in a strange house, enrolling our 16-year-old in a different school, looking for a church, missing our family (including our oldest son at a college back home), and wondering over and over again: “Why, God?” Hadn’t I followed the rules? Hadn’t I trusted God to fight for me and deliver us from the upheaval?

Then, on a Sunday not long after our move, in a church surrounded by strangers, I heard a sermon based on Exodus 14—you know, the chapter in which I’d found my “stand firm and be still” verses. I didn’t think there was much new to discover in that chapter since I’d camped on it for the previous several months. But then the pastor read verse 15: “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on’” (Exodus 14:15).

As I sat in that church chair, I cringed. Wait. What? Did the pastor just say, “Move on”? He must have gotten it wrong. I flipped opened my Bible to read it myself. But there, immediately following my clearly highlighted “stand still” verse was God’s command to “move on.” How had I missed that?

I don’t recall the rest of that Sunday’s sermon, but I remember my tears as I looked up and whispered, “Ok Lord, I get it.” Though there is a time to stand firm and be still, God expects me to keep moving forward in trust (Exodus 14:31).

In this game of life, things don’t always go according to the rules—at least not the rules we like! Oftentimes we get a fully revamped life when we press forward with the Lord, but in our moving on, we find the beautiful life God intentionally laid out for us. Just like the Israelites who feared the Egyptians on one side and the Red Sea on the other, we need to keep moving on in whatever direction God leads. And then, as the Israelites discovered when they saw God part the sea to allow their escape from the advancing Egyptian army, God receives the glory (Exodus 14:17-18). 

The “rules” probably won’t change, but our hearts will be changed, for our good and God’s glory. 

And so, game on! Green light!