February 12

Strong and Courageous

            After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying, “My servant Moses is dead. Now proceed to cross the Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the Israelites.  Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, as I promised to Moses.  From the wilderness and the Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, to the Great Sea in the west shall be your territory.  No one shall 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 not fail you or forsake you.  Be strong and courageous; for you shall put this people in possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful. I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Joshua 1:1-9

            Leading a people is not an easy call.  Leading a group of nomads into an invasion of an occupied land and replacing the only leader that they have ever known while also being the people’s representative to God…is significantly harder.  That was the position that Joshua found himself in.  He did a phenomenal job as we read in Scripture, but here in chapter one with all the uncertainties ahead of him, there are doubts.

            God’s words to Joshua boil down to this: “Be Strong and Courageous.”  Joshua is told that very thing three times in this passage and then his people say the same thing to him in the following section.

            “Strong and Courageous.”  They go together.  They have to go together or the outcome is flawed.  Strength without courage is frustration and half-completed tasks.  It is potential that goes wasted.  It is someone who has the ability to change their world, but lacks the character and so they, and those who follow them, go home defeated.  Courage without strength is inspiring but ineffective.  It is defeat after defeat after defeat that demoralizes followers and leads to despair.  After a while courage just becomes delusion.

            Our children need us to have both strength and courage.  They need our bodies to be strong enough to help them struggle through their challenges.  They need our minds to be strong enough to understand the scope of our situation and to figure out what needs to be done next.  They need our hearts to be strong enough to hold hope and compassion and lament all together without bitterness and defeat corrupting them.  They need us to be courageous enough to pursue each of these things without hiding in the escapism that alcohol or gaming or media or work or materialism provide.

            If we can be strong and courageous…if we can respond to God’s invitation to parent children that have special needs…we become partners with God in His care and transformation of His dear children and His beloved world.

              

A moment to reflect:

Where do you show strength?  Where do you show courage?  What do you want more of?