Today’s
Scripture Reading (December 30, 2018): Joshua 3
In
his lecture entitled “Walking” or “The Wild,” Henry David Thoreau comments “I
am alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily,
without getting there in spirit.” I understand what Thoreau means. I am a
walker. And something seems to happen to me when I get outside and just start to put one foot in front of the
other. It gives my body and my spirit time to exist in the same place, and a
space to contemplate what is important at
that moment in my life. But there are times when my spirit does not seem to
catch up with my body, and I find my feet
walking while my mind and spirit remain trapped in the mundane stresses of the
day. And that reality is alarming. I want my spirit to exist in the places where
my feet are taking me.
As
Israel begins to prepare to enter the Promised Land, they begin to receive his
instructions on how the next step is going to happen. God tells Joshua to place
the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant at the front of Israel’s move into
the land. The rest are to follow at a
distance behind. But the Promised Land existed on the other side of the Jordan
River. So the nation will be marching toward a river
and one that happens to be at flood stage.
When
the priests carrying the Ark reach the edges of the water, God’s instructions are
that they should keep on walking. It was a moment in their journey when they
needed to be sure that their faith and their spirit existed in the same place
as their bodies. I can imagine the emotions that flooded the priests as they
walked closer and closer to the edge of the Jordan.
Their eyes would have revealed the dangers that were lying ahead of them in the
river, and every moment and every step brought them closer to that danger. This was not a race. They would have been
walking at a consistent, steady pace with each step bringing them slowly closer
to the river. But when they reached the banks of the river, their bodies and spirits needed to be in the same place,
because the next step was not just a physical step into the water, it was a
step of trust and faith into their future.
The
truth is that our lives are walked and
each day contains steps that carry us toward our destination. Sometimes that
destination seems to be a place that we are not sure that we want to go. But it
is in these moments that we need to make sure that our bodies and spirits exist
in the same space, because there is no
doubt that some of our life steps will be steps of faith and trust, carrying us
someplace we need to go, but maybe are
scared to go. And we need to know that when we reach our Jordan, God is
stepping with us into the water – and will be with us as we cross its flooding
depths.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joshua 4
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