I was recently browsing through my vast library of books.
OK, so I only have about a couple thousand or so. Anyway, I ran across a book that was from 1950 titled "The Shepherd-Evangelist" by R.A. Anderson. It has a poem in it that I wanted to share which was quite long, but then I decided to also share a portion of the text that came just before the poem. So, this could be a long read. You might want to kick me off the forum. 
This does, however, give me the opportunity to practice my not-so-good typing skills. 
How well God knows the way to appeal to those whom He selects! A scientific mind is naturally gripped by a phenomenon. See this physicist as he watches the burning bush. Amazed, he questions, "Why is the bush ablaze and yet not consumed?" Approaching the scene, he becones aware of the divine Presence. Awestruck, he listens to the challenge concernig Israel. Forty years earlier he had felt ready and eager for the task, Now he is begging to be excused. He is unworthy and ill prepared. How can he ever retrace his steps?
But again the Voice addresses him. "What is in thine hand?" And Moses answers meekly, "A rod."
He might have been wielding a scepter; instead, he is carrying a rod, a shepherd's crook, which every day reminds him of his failure and his sin. It is four decades since he had fled from Egypt, but he is still a servant, a shepherd, leading another's flocks. Life has certainly been a disillusionment to him. But why does God come so close to a man's secret thoughts? Why does He refer to the rod? Ah, that rod will no longer be a symbol of human failure; it will soon become the emblem of divine power.
"Throw it on the ground," comes the command. He does, and that dry stick becomes a living, challenging thing, a serpent so awesome that the fearless desert prince flees from it. But even that attitude becomes a symbol. Has he not been doing that very thing for forty years--runing away from trouble?
"Stop!" cries the Voice. "Stop and pick it up." He obeys, and it becomes a rod again in his hand.
Now something must have happended to the serpent, for we read that Moses picked it up by the tail. It must have rightabout-faced and started in the other direction.
For those who are interested in psychology this is an interesting study. Not until one grips the thing that has haunted his soul and dogged his steps, is he truly qualified for leadership. The failures of the past, the skeletons in the closet, can, by divine grace, become the symbols of victory as we obey the voice of God.
Something else happened to the rod that day--it changed ownership. Ever afterward Moses spoke of it as "the rod of God." Not only the rod, but the shepherd himself, passed that day into the possession of another. There, beside that burning bush Jethro's hired man was lost, God's leader was found, and Israel's deliverer received his divine commission. In the desert he discovered that all the disappointments that had marred the tragic past were but God's appointments to make possible a glorious future. What miracles can happen in the desert if one only has eyes to see and ears to hear!
WHEN GOD WANTS A MAN
When God wants to drill a man
And thrill a man and skill a man;
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noble's part;
When He yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall praise--
Watch His method, watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects;
How He hammers him and hurts him
And with mighty blows converts him
Into trial shapes of clay which only God can understand--
While his tortured heart is crying and he lifts beseeching hand!
How He bends, but never breaks,
When his good He undertakes--
How He uses whom He chooses
And with every purpose fuses him,
By every art induces him
To try his splendor out--
Yes, God knows what He's about.
When God wants to take a man
And shake a man and wake a man;
When God wants to make a man
To do the future's will;
When He tries with all His skill
And He yearns with all His soul
To create him large and whole--
With what cunning He prepares him!
How He goads and never spares him;
How He whets him and He frets him
And in poverty begets him;
How He often disappoints
Whom He sacredly anoints;
With what wisdom He will hide him
Never minding what betide him
Though his genius sob with slighting and his pride may not forget!
Bids him struggle harder yet.
Makes him lonely so that only
God's high messages shall reach him,
So that He may surely teach him
What Heaven's hierarchy has planned.
Though he may not understand,
Gives him passions to command--
How remorselessly He spurs him,
With terrific ardor stirs him
When He poignantly prefers him!
When God wants to name a man
And fame a man and tame a man;
When God wants to shame a man
To do his heavenly best;
When He tries the highest test
That His reckoning may bring;
When He wants to make a king--
How He reins him and restrains him
So his body scarce contains him
While He fires him and inspires him,
Keeps him yearning, ever burning, for a tantalizing goal--
Lures and lacerates his soul!
Sets a challenge for his spirit,
Draws it higher when he's near it--
Makes a jungle, that he clear it;
Makes a desert, that he fear it
And subdue it if he can--
So our God doth make a man.
Then, to test his spirit's wrath,
Hurls a mountain in his path--
Puts a bitter choice before him
And relentless stands He o'er him.
"Climb, or perish!" so He says--
Watch His purpose, watch His ways!
God's plan is so wondrous kind
Could we understand His mind--
Fools are they who call Him blind.
When that man's feet are torn and bleeding
Yet his spirit mounts unheeding,
All his higher powers speeding,
Blazing newer paths and fine;
When the force that is divine
Leaps to challenge every failure and his ardor still is sweet
And love and hope are burning in the presence of defeat--
Lo, the crisis! Lo, the shout
That must call the leader out.
When the people need salvation
Doth he come to lead the nation.
Then to all God shows His plan
When the world has found--a man!
--Angela Morgan, adapted.
This was something that I needed to read for myself.
I hope others can get something out of it too.
God's blessings on you all!