If you had asked me in high school what I would be doing when I was 55, this is definitely NOT what I would have told you. At that point in my life, working with churches was the last thing I would have confessed as my future. I saw how “the church” had treated my father as a pastor. No thank you. I would seek my fortune doing something else.
Soon after high school, I felt a strong call on my life to be involved in ministry. However, being a pastor was the only form of Godly service I could think of. And with the sting of church abuse still fresh on my mind, that wasn’t the direction I wanted to go. And then God got very specific with me. He gave me the specific call of being involved in music ministry. Of that I was positive. Now I had a clear goal. However, the path to getting to my goal was still unclear. Even after I had begun to set my sights on my future, things were still unclear. I had a destination in mind, but getting there was very confusing. I couldn’t see a clear path to my goals. Do I go to school? Do I begin looking for a job in music ministry? What is my next step?
Like many of you who have faced similar circumstances, I had to step into the water and feel my way forward to find my next steps in life. I couldn’t see clearly what the next step held, so I had to just do what I thought was the right thing and adjust my steps as necessary. Eventually I got to my destination.
Wouldn’t it be great to see the future? To have it all laid out for you? And yet, as those of us who follow God as a matter of course have come to discover, that isn’t at all the case. Especially, it seems, when following a directive given by God himself!
In the book of Joshua, we have a similar story, although one with greater consequences than most of us face. The nation of Israel is finally crossing the Jordan River and entering the land that God had promised to them. It has been 40 years since they sent spies into the promised land. They are now permitted to go into the land and live there. There is only one small obstacle in their path: The Jordan River. What do we know about the Jordan River?
According to both the Bible and historical sources, the Jordan River was considered a very dirty river. Although it was not very wide, it was quite muddy, probably due to the rapid drop in altitude during it’s course. Also, at the time of our story, we are told that the Jordan was flooding because it was Spring time. The Israelites had their destination in sight literally, but couldn’t see their next steps to reach it. Like us, they would have to step into the water and quite literally feel their way across the obstacle to reaching their destination.
However, in this case, God had something else in mind to help them reach their goal. He had the priests carry the Ark of The Covenant into the water first. The Ark represented the presence of God, since it was considered to actually contain God’s presence. Doing this would cause the path to become clear. The river stopped flowing about 20 miles upriver from their crossing which allowed them to see clearly their steps across to their destination.
Too often we try to feel our way into our destination instead of allowing the presence of God to clear it all up for us. Once God’s presence is introduced into our circumstances, things start to become clearer for us. If you have a destination, but are unsure of how to get there, allow the presence of God to clear up your steps. Pray, praise, worship – spend time in the presence of God and your steps will become clear.