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Be Strong...

                 No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.

 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:5-9)

There’s an old saying about when God says something once… when God says something twice…when God says something three times… I don’t remember how it goes, except that it escalates. The more times He says it, the faster, bigger, better your response should be. In these five verses, God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous three times. I could play with the idea and suggest that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit each took a turn, but the key point is that God majorly stressed to the point of over-the-top how important it was for Joshua to be strong and courageous.

It reminds me of a scene from The Empire Strikes back. Han tells C3P0 to do something. As the robot turns to obey, Han interrupts him with another instruction. As C3P0 turns again, Han grabs his shoulder and either gives another instruction or asks why he isn’t doing what he was told. It also reminds me of the old Columbo show, “Oh, just one more thing.” But it’s the same thing over and over.

This might make sense if we were talking about Gideon, who was so afraid of the Midianites that he ground grain in a winepress. It might make sense if we were talking about timid Timothy, but this is Joshua. He was one of Moses’ right-hand-men for forty years. He was the commander of the Hebrew army.

But, things had changed. Moses was dead. Joshua had seen how badly the Israelites had treated Moses. Leading a long-term military campaign isn’t the same as responding to threats when they show up. Yes, he was a trained, battle-hardened soldier, but I am also trained, by God, by life, by formal educational systems. I’ve worked in government, in administration, in retail, and as a gardener/helper. I’ve been traveling back and forth from Erie to Florida for 7 years. But every March and every September, I face a change in circumstances. Forget about those big changes. I’ve told people for years that if my schedule gets interrupted, I have to start over from scratch, to rebuild my life completely.

Last night and this morning, I’m dealing with some of that. And I’m trying to be strong and courageous. I’m reminding myself that the changes that will take place in the next month aren’t threats. I’ve done them before. God is still God. God is still good. My computer generates my task list so I don’t have to worry that I’ll forget things.

It doesn’t take being a world leader to need to be told to be strong and courageous. It just takes living. And I suspect that at least part of Joshua’s problem – or at least mine – was that he had a few minutes to look at the situation without being able to do anything about it.

So, what changes and challenges are you facing? What do you need to be told to be strong and courageous about? Well, be strong and courageous.

Be strong and courageous

Be strong and courageous.

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