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All For One...

 So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your supplies ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you for your own.’ ” But to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said, “Remember the command that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: ‘The LORD your God is giving you rest and has granted you this land.’ Your wives, your children and your livestock may stay in the land that Moses gave you east of the Jordan, but all your fighting men, fully armed, must cross over ahead of your brothers. You are to help your brothers until the LORD gives them rest, as he has done for you, and until they too have taken possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving them. After that, you may go back and occupy your own land, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you east of the Jordan toward the sunrise.”
        Then they answered Joshua, “Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. (Joshua 1:10-16)
 
          You may not have ever read any of the stories of the Three Musketeers, but you probably know their mantra, "All for one, and one for all."
          Martin Luther King, Jr. said "No one is free until we are all free."
          In the Declaration of Independence, it is stated  "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
         There is something powerful about a bond of unity. Two and a half tribes of Israel had been given land on the east side of the Jordan. They had no reason to cross and assist the nine and a half tribes defeat their enemies. They had no reason except their word. They had no reason except for their unity with the rest of Israel. They may have thought that the conquest of the land would be quick. It wasn't, but they stuck it out.
          How's your word? How are you at sticking it out when things take longer than you anticipated? How enduring is your bond to other people? My immediate response to this is that I'm not so good at keeping my word to people, or at sticking it our when things don't go according to my plan. As for my bond to other people, it seems to be like super glue, until it's not. Those perspectives may not be accurate. I'm more sure of how my word is with myself or with God. Assured of God's forgiveness and of my own poor opinion of myself, I'm more than a little lax about keeping my word to either of us. I get testy when things take longer than I anticipated, but that testiness sometimes turns into stubbornness - I mean endurance. It seems to me that the closer one is to someone, the freer one feels to let that person down.
         Tomorrow, I'm crossing the "Jordan." I'm beginning to think that there's some "Promised Land" inside my soul that has to be conquered. I invite you to be my two and a half tribes when God brings me to your mind by praying for me this winter: the standard prayer of wisdom, direction and attitude. As God brings you to mind, I'll pray for yours, too.

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