Tag Archives: Gameboy

There have been so many times when I have done something that I thought was pretty great only to find out that it wasn’t quite so… example…
Painting class 101 or something like that in college… We had to pick a master artist and mimic his/her work…. I chose Monet… I worked so hard to have my painting look like his… I studied his brush stroke and color and my finished product looked similar or as similar as a college student who knew nothing about Monet could get. I was very proud of my piece.. Got to class that evening and pulled out my work and placed it in the line next to the others… everyone oohed and aahed….. not at my painting but at the one down the line from mine that was brilliant….. Dang it!! ……. the instructor, I never respected her much, was so incredibly critical of mine that I tossed my work in the trash as I left the room.. it took me several years to pick up another paintbrush after that class was over… …
and another...
As a teenager I had a tiny little LCD TV that I could carry around in my pocket if I wanted. (I never wanted) I also had a video game system that used game cartridges. In my mind, I thought that there had to be a way to bring those two things together… kind of like peanut butter and chocolate make a Reeses Cup… I was going to make a little tiny game system that changed games and would be small enough to fit in a pocket, if you wanted. Now these were days before the internet and google and the only way that I knew how to accomplish such a task would be to figure it out in the library or at MIT or something… my idea and dream stayed alive in my mind for years … then one day, it happened… GameBoy… Dang it!.. I could have made millions… If I had figured out how to make it first then I could be blogging on some beach right now… or at least in a bedroom that had matching furniture..

I chuckled today as I read in Exodus… The focal person in the whole exit out of Egypt is Moses but Moses’s brother, Aaron, played a big role too. After all Aaron was the one who did what Moses told him to do… he was kind of at the mercy of Moses… Can you imagine?
Exodus 7:10-12a
10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. 11 Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: 12 Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. DANG IT!

or

Exodus 7:19-22a

19 The LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs’-and they will turn to blood. Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in the wooden buckets and stone jars.” 20 Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. 21 The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt. 22 But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, DANG IT!

There’s more… it happened again… only with frogs… three times the magicians were able to at least match what Aaron did… If you read the rest of verse twelve you know that Aaron’s snake was likely a bit more “realistic” as it ate up the magician’s snakes… but the whole point of what I am getting at is Aaron had some Dang it! moments there….He was doing something that was pretty incredible, something that God had asked him to do, only to be matched up by some nonbelieving magicians … I wonder what his facial expression was like when the magicians matched what he was doing?  Was he looking at Moses with disgust, fear, frustration or did he stand proud and bold knowing he was doing what God had said to do?  I would guess that since we don’t hear about a mutiny or a desertion that Aaron trusted… regardless…

So then if I am feeling like I am doing what God has asked me to do… no, not just feeling like it, but knowing it… and I find myself overwhelmed, incapable, feeling frustrated, frightened or forgotten,  I can choose to give in and give up or I can choose to grit my teeth, hold onto the gifts that God has given me, listen to Moses (or that person that God has placed in my life) and take my Dang it! moments with trust…. oh, and I’ll remember one very important thing…

The fourth time Aaron was asked to show a miracle… it couldn’t be matched by the magicians. They themselves said it was from God. That was their Dang it! moment…..and from then on they weren’t even an obstacle…Now that is a total Woohoo! Moment!