Stop Using Autism as an Excuse. Here’s What to Do Instead
Today, we are talking about excuses. I think that learning more about being on the spectrum, coming to this realization that I’m autistic, and having that knowledge has been such a wonderful addition of knowledge to my life, really helped me to understand and reframe the things that I have been struggling with and going through throughout the years.
But what I can recognize in the past, even before I had the diagnosis and the language for this, is that the things that I would struggle with or the tendencies that I had, I would use as an excuse as to why I couldn’t do something. And that’s what I want to jump into today. Sometimes we can just get so used to how we are, or we can end up giving up, or just kind of relegating ourselves to, “Well, this is just how I am, and therefore, I can’t do X, Y, and Z. I can’t speak up. I can’t say how I’m feeling,” because it’s either challenging, or difficult, or maybe you’ve been met with resistance or rejection in the past.
And we just honestly need to cut that out. Life is too short. We need to cut it out. We need to figure out a way to be able to move past that because being on the spectrum, having a diagnosis is not an excuse for not living the life that God has designed you to live. God didn’t make an accident when he gave you autism, or ADHD, or little weird quirky habits. It’s not a surprise to him, so we need to stop using those things as an excuse, your introversion, or social anxiety, or exhaustion, different things like that that I have struggled with year over year over year.
Setting the Stage: Moses and His Excuses
As much as I might need to make some changes and accommodations, they’re still not an excuse for when God tells you to go do something and you hesitate or you just don’t do it at all, right? I know we’re coming in a little hot today, but I think this is really important to be able to step forward in every single area of your life and what you’re wanting to do. Whether that’s career, whether that’s relationships, parenting, your spiritual life. We can’t sit here and make excuses based on the struggles that we have, and we’re gonna see that today in Exodus.
We’re going to talk about Moses today, because boy did he have some excuses, okay? He had plenty, and he was bold to keep telling God himself, who came down to talk to him through this burning bush, about what he couldn’t do. But we like to look at that and think somehow we’re different. If God would only give me a sign like that. No, we’re just like Moses. Let’s not play ourselves. We’re no better than Moses, okay? God could give you a burning bush, a burning building. He could give you all of that, and we would still have excuses. So we need to look at what the Lord said and apply that to our lives, okay?
The Burning Bush
So we’re going to go into Exodus 3, straight into Moses saw the burning bush. He was like, “Ooh, what’s that over there? That’s crazy. It’s not burning up. Let me go take a look at it.” And God was like, “Moses, Moses.” Moses was like, “Oh, my gosh.” Yeah, take off your sandals. This is holy ground now. I have some stuff to say to you. Okay, cool.
Now verse 10, “So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” Okay? God gave Moses a clear directive. This is what I want you to do. This is where you’re going. If you read the first part of the chapter, God gave Moses the whole rundown. I’ve heard my people suffering. I know where they are. I know it’s been a long time, and I have the solution. I’m sending you to go talk to Pharaoh, and we’re gonna get them out of Egypt. It’s time to go.
Excuse One: Who Am I?
Now come the excuses. Excuse number one in verse 11, “But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?'”
This has been one of the biggest struggles that I have dealt with my whole life. Who am I? Oh, it’s just me. Oh, it’s just little old me. Don’t worry about me. I’m not that important. I’m not that special. Who wants to use me? Who wants to talk to me? Why would God want to use… Why me? Who am I? How many of us have sat there and said, ah, I mean, God really couldn’t do that through me.
And we sit here like God didn’t in Psalms tell us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We’re going to get into that at one point in these episodes because if you are anything like me, you’ve had a hard time believing that most of your life. How could I be fearfully and wonderfully made? And so when we have trouble believing that, then we get to be like Moses with this first excuse, which starts with identity, by the way. And he says, “Well, who am I? I’m just out here shepherding sheep and stuff. Who am I?”
And if you notice in the first part of this chapter, God didn’t say anything about who are you. He said, “This is what you’re doing.” Obviously, he knows who you are. He’s God. So he already has that part cleared up, right? So the first excuse is who am I? The response, the first answer, and God was so generous during this whole exchange because he didn’t have to answer him. He could’ve just smote him and been done with it and went and talked to someone else. But he sat there through all of Moses’ excuses and the answer was, “I will be with you.”
If you really sit here and think about it, Moses asked “who am I?” and God didn’t say, “Oh well, you are so and so.” Why? Because it’s irrelevant. You’re the person I’m picking. Who you are, obviously I know that, so it’s completely irrelevant. The most important part is that I will be with you, not who you are.
Excuse Two: What Will I Say?
Second excuse, second excuse in Exodus, “But Moses says to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,” and they ask me what is His name, what shall I say to them?'”
So the second excuse is what am I gonna say? I’m not really sure what to say. Your people are down there and they’re gonna be like, “Oh, you just came back to randomly get us out of Egypt.” What am I gonna say to them?
So we sit here thinking who am I? And then the second thing that we think is, well, what am I gonna say? And the Lord’s answer to this is, “I am who I am.” Again, what you’re going to say, what you think you’re trying to rack your brain to put words together and all that, irrelevant. I am who I am, and he tells him exactly what I’m going to say. Hey, listen, you’re going to gather up the people. You’re gonna say I Am Who I Am sent you. There’s gonna be some signs and this, that, and the third, but essentially, I am God. I am who I am, so what you’re going to say, it’s about what I’m going to say, not about what you’re going to say. I’m gonna put the words in your mouth. So again, your excuse, irrelevant.
Excuse Three: What If They Don’t Believe Me?
Excuse number three, Exodus 4:1. Now we get into the whining. “But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me, but say the Lord didn’t appear to you.” The Lord didn’t tell you to do all that. I think you’re having delusions of grandeur, a little bit of savior complex.
And the Lord says, “All right, so there’s going to be signs. There’s going to be plagues. Listen, I’ll even show you right now. Take that staff that you have in your hand.” Oh, look what I can do with it. Snake, cool. Take your hand, put it in your cloak. Ooh, leprosy. Stick it back in, not leprosy. Look, we’re gonna have signs here. See? We’re still working. The burning bush is still going on, mind you. I don’t think the Lord just turned it off once they started talking. The burning bush is still there, right? Voice coming out of the burning bush right now. They’re still in this conversation and Moses has nothing but excuses.
So what is the answer to, “Well, what if they don’t believe me when I share this with them?” What if they don’t believe me when I share how I’m feeling or what if they don’t believe me when I say I’ve been struggling with something or what if people don’t believe me? What if they reject me, okay?
The response to this was, “I’m gonna give you signs.” The Lord is able and willing to give signs. This isn’t gonna be everyone’s situation, but I know that there are many of us who’ve experienced confirmation, whether it’s in different areas of our lives, someone saying something to us, us reading a particular scripture for that day and it connecting with something else, or even something more miraculous, and that goes on like the daily little miracles that we experience throughout the day, whether that’s provision or protection and different things. So sometimes the Lord does give us those signs that we’re headed in the right direction, that yes, this is what I want you to do.
Excuse Four: I’m Not Eloquent
Okay, now excuse number four. “But Moses said to the Lord, ‘Oh my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that You have spoken to Your servant, but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.'”
Moses had a speech impediment essentially and that can make people unconfident, so that’s completely understandable if the Lord’s going and asking him to speak somewhere and he’s like, yeah, but I’ve never really been good with speaking. But this starts to anger the Lord a bit because he says, “Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?”
Essentially, don’t you think I know that? I know that you’re not great with speaking. That’s not… I didn’t ask you to go lead my children out of Egypt because you spoke so well, because of your TED Talk last Friday. That’s not why I’m asking you. I have said that I’m gonna be with you. I have said that I’m going to give you signs. I have said that I’m gonna fill your mouth and give you the words to say. I’m the one who created speech.
And this is the thing. There are so many things that we have struggled with being on the spectrum. Our brains are just wired differently. So it behooves us to think that God created our brain this way. Yes, it just works a little bit differently. And to sit here and say, “But I’m on the spectrum,” or, “I’m autistic, therefore I can’t.” God created your brain to be this way, and then in this moment, he says to you, “Who created your brain? Who created your mouth? Who created your body, your mind, your talents, your skills? Who gave this to you? If I’m the one who gave this to you and then I’m the one who’s telling you to go do something, don’t you think that it’s enough? Don’t you think that I have made provision for you? I am God.”
And yet we find it in ourselves to keep making excuses. Well, I might get rejected. Maybe they’ll hurt my feelings. We have excuses galore for when God has asked us to do something, or we just know that we’re supposed to move forward in a certain area of our lives, and all we can say is what we can’t do. Who knows better, you or the Creator? And yet we find it in ourselves to make those excuses. It’s an insult to the Creator, because who knows better?
Excuse Five: Send Someone Else
Alright, excuse number five, and this was really bold or really stupid, one of the two. Verse 13, chapter four, “But he said, ‘Oh, my lord, please send someone else.'”
God has sat through this entire conversation, was generous with Moses, gave him the sign of the burning bush, answered all of his questions, told him he was going with him, showed him the signs. He got multiple signs. And then he’s sitting there talking to God audibly. And after all of those signs in this conversation that he’s having, he still says in his fifth excuse, “Please send someone else.” Then God got angry. It says after all that, then he got angry. And even in his anger, God was merciful. He says, “What about your brother?”
And he was like, “All right. All right, cause this is wild. This is so wild.” But look, “What about your brother Aaron? He speaks really well.” He had a great TED Talk last Friday, okay? “Even now he is on his way to see you. Would you look at that? Look at God. Won’t I do it, right? I’ll tell you what to say, then you tell him what to say and I’ll be in both of your mouths.” How about that? God kept making provision after provision after provision, right? And if you read later on in the chapter, Moses was being extra stupid and almost got himself killed and his wife had to go and save the day. You can read that on your own time. But he made excuse after excuse after excuse, and we’re no different.
We’re No Different
We are no different than Moses when we sit here knowing that the Lord has maybe called us to something or told us to move forward in a certain area of our lives or open up our mouths and speak. We talked about last week, Esther and unmasking in a moment that was important, and in that moment we can make excuses as to why we shouldn’t go in front of the king. Well, I might get killed. Which is a very real reality. Maybe you will get rejected. Maybe someone will hurt your feelings. Maybe you will get autistic burnout. Maybe you will get tired. Maybe you’ll end up ruminating or feel social anxiety. All of those things are very real, and yet God says, “I picked you.”
We can see ourselves in many of these excuses, but I think maybe one or two might stand out more to you. For me, it’s the who am I. Thinking so low of yourself because of your struggles that you couldn’t possibly be used. Where, what excuse do you see yourself in?
Take the Step
And then what is the answer that God gave to Moses? If it’s the who am I, it’s remembering that God is always with me. Because when you start focusing on self, you start to believe that you’re alone.
If it’s the signs, ask God for a sign. Not in some, I need a neon light, a billboard, whatever. In genuine humility, if that’s what you need, and God knows that you’re the type of person who needs that, then ask.
If you’re the type of person that it’s really difficult for you to do those things on stand on your own, and do it, ask Him to send someone with you. Or maybe there is someone already that is willing to walk alongside you to have this hard conversation or to support you in whatever thing that you’re struggling with, and you haven’t tapped into that person.
We gotta give up the excuses. Time is passing, whether we step into the things God has called us to or not. And what a shame it would be to get to the end of our lives saying, well, I wish I would have.
Closing
What excuse this week do you need to one, identify, and then two, work towards giving up? Ask the Lord this week, show me where I have been making excuses based on my past trauma, based on my diagnoses, based on anything else that’s been going on in my life. Show me where I’ve been making excuses, remind me of the provision that you have already made for me, and then give me the strength to walk in that and take one step forward.
I know this was a little bit more of a hot one, a little bit more intense, but I really want the best for us, and sometimes we just need some harsh truths and we need a little kick in the rear to start moving forward.