Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...

Pure...

            The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5)   I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16) I’m probably cheating - or mishandling the Bible, but earlier I was thinking about love being pure and purifying. And hatred being pure and purifying. And anger…joy…patience… fear… jealousy… courage…lust… and other strongly felt feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. Today’s verse brings purity and love together, so it’s the verse of the day, but it’s not really the focus. That means my motive for sharing it with you probably isn’t pure. As you read through my list, you   probably thought, “Yeah” about some, and “What’s she on?” about others. But consider how much hatred, a...