Familiar But Fresh
by Royce
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” — Isaiah 43:18-19
In 1997, Reed Hastings launched Netflix as a DVD-by-mail service. The product was familiar — movies — but the delivery was fresh: no late fees, no driving to Blockbuster. When streaming technology emerged, Hastings didn’t abandon what Netflix knew. The core stayed the same — delivering the right content to the right person. DVD became streaming. Each shift used the familiar — data, storytelling, customer obsession — expressed in a radically fresh way.
Meanwhile, Blockbuster kept doing what had always worked. Same stores. Same model. Same rock, struck over and over again — until there was nothing left.
When God called Moses at the burning bush, He didn’t hand him a new weapon. He asked a question: “What is that in your hand?” A staff. A shepherd’s stick. Moses had carried it for forty years tending Jethro’s flock. It was so unremarkable that Moses didn’t even notice.
But God saw what Moses couldn’t. That unremarkable staff would become the instrument that summoned plagues on Egypt, parted the Red Sea, and drew water from stone. God didn’t need to give Moses something new. He transformed what was already there.
This is how God works in our lives. He doesn’t discard your history. Your years in your industry, your skill set, your relational instincts, your painful detours — none of it is wasted. God asks the same question He asked Moses: What’s already in your hand?
But here’s where it gets uncomfortable. The familiar in God’s hands doesn’t stay predictable.
Years after the staff parted the Red Sea, Israel ran out of water. God told Moses: “Take the staff… strike the rock, and water will come out” (Exodus 17:5-6). Moses obeyed. Water flowed. Problem solved.
Forty years later, the exact same crisis returned. No water. Same staff in hand. But this time God changed the instruction: “Speak to the rock” (Numbers 20:8). Don’t strike it. Speak to it.
Moses let his anger took over. Frustrated with the people’s endless complaining, he let his emotions dictate his actions instead of following God’s fresh instruction. He struck the rock — twice — and it cost him entry into the Promised Land. His disobedience wasn’t rebellion. It was reflex fueled by frustration. And that’s the most dangerous kind — when emotion overrides obedience and autopilot masquerades as faithfulness.
Past success can become present disobedience when we stop listening for fresh instructions.
God changes the method because He wants us dependent on His voice, not on our track record. If He gave the same instruction every time, we’d follow a formula instead of following a Person. The fresh keeps us close.
And then comes the most striking transition of all. When Moses died and Joshua took command, the staff disappeared from the story entirely. It’s never mentioned again in the book of Joshua. Joshua — who had watched that staff perform miracles his entire life — never received it.
Because God had been preparing something different in Joshua all along. While Moses carried a staff, Joshua had been lingering in the Tent of Meeting, soaking in God’s presence (Exodus 33:11). That was his formation. God didn’t say, “Now take Moses’ staff.” He said, “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you” (Joshua 1:5).
Joshua’s first miracle — crossing the Jordan — involved no staff. Just the Ark of the Covenant going ahead. Presence, not instrument.
Same God. Same power. Completely different method.
The familiar grounds us. The fresh renews us. And God tailors both to who He’s made us to be.
Personal Reflection
- Where in your work or leadership are you “striking the rock” out of habit — repeating what worked last season — instead of listening for God’s fresh instruction today?
- Joshua didn’t know that years of lingering in God’s presence was preparation for leading a nation. What new experience, skill, or season has God recently opened in your life that might be preparing you for something fresh you can’t yet see?
Prayer
Father, Thank You that You don’t waste my history — You use what’s already in my hand. But give me ears to hear when You’re changing the instruction. Keep me from the reflex of doing what worked before when You’re calling me to something fresh. And help me trust that what You’ve been building in me is enough — even when it looks nothing like what You built in someone else. Ground me in the familiar. Renew me with the fresh. Take my staff, Lord — and make it Yours. In Jesus’ name, Amen.