One of my favorite stories in the entire Bible is found in the first part of the book of Joshua.
The scene is this: Moses has died and Joshua has taken over the role of leader of the people of Israel. They are getting ready to enter into the Promised Land, that land which God was giving to them. There was only one major obstacle: the Jordan River, which is at the flood stage.
Cue the story.
Joshua hears from God, who tells Joshua to have the priests start marching toward the river with the rest of the people following. The priests are not to stop when they hit the first water in the floodplain...they are to keep marching...straight into the water. So that's what they do. And God does what God did 40 years earlier with the Red Sea - he parts the water and the people cross on dry land.
Here's what makes this story so awesome - nothing happens until the priests feet hit the water. God doesn't part the water when the people are still a mile away, or a half a mile away, a hundred yards away, or even 10 feet away. The whole time they approached the rushing waters, nothing changed. It wasn't until their toes got wet that God did anything.
Talk about requiring both courage and faith of God's people. I can only imagine the amount of courage that it took to take the first step into the waters, the first step into the unknown. I suspect there was a moment of hesitation - the lead priests stopping for just a second to glance at each other as if to say, "Are you sure about this?" But then they did it.
This story - found in Joshua 3 - inspires me. I often look at the future like the Israelites must have looked at the rushing, swollen waters of the Jordan river that day - dangerous, uncertain, powerful. As a result, I have often been afraid of the future, afraid to step out and put my feet in the water and trust that God will take care of it.
My hope and prayer is that God will form me into one who walks fearlessly into the water, even if there is no evidence that anything will change...
jB
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