March 10

Rahab

            Then Joshua son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” So they went, and entered the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and spent the night there.  The king of Jericho was told, “Some Israelites have come here tonight to search out the land.”  Then the king of Jericho sent orders to Rahab, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come only to search out the whole land.”  But the woman took the two men and hid them. Then she said, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they came from.  And when it was time to close the gate at dark, the men went out. Where the men went I do not know. Pursue them quickly, for you can overtake them.”  She had, however, brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax that she had laid out on the roof…Before they went to sleep, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men: “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that dread of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt in fear before you…Now then, since I have dealt kindly with you, swear to me by the Lord that you in turn will deal kindly with my family. Give me a sign of good faith that you will spare my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” 

Joshua 2:1-13

          Rahab was everything that the Ancient Jews devalued.  She was a woman.  She was a sex worker.  She was a pagan Gentile who worshipped false gods.  She was a liar.  She was a traitor to her people.  She was manipulative and opportunistic and only helped the two Israelites in order to save her and her family.

            All true…and yet incomplete.  Rahab is heralded by the author of the book of James as a heroine of the faith.  She marries into the Israelites and from her comes the lineage of Israel’s greatest kings; Jesus is actually part of her family tree.  God chose to work through her in mighty ways even though her background was suspect, her life choices were morally questionable and her people were enemies of God’s children.

            People do not choose which nation they will be born to.  They do not choose their parents or their ethnicity or their physical limitations.  They do not choose whether their parents go to church or are happily married.  We have no say in how we start this life; all that we can choose is how we respond to the hand that we have been dealt.

            Rahab saw a chance to change her hand, a chance to meet the true, living God and move out of the lifestyle that she had grown up with.  Those chances are often few and far between.  Everything in our lives conspire to keep us stationary, coping with the same internal struggles and external pressures day after day and year after year.

            I worked with a middle-age man on the spectrum while at my IDD center.  He was a decade older than I and consistently miserable.  His life was a repetitive cycle of working lousy jobs, driving his job coaches away, hitting on younger women, getting himself injured and then getting himself fired.  Then he would have a new job found for him and he would begin the cycle again.  Sometimes the pattern would take a couple of years to complete, often it was just a couple of months.  He called our office almost every day to complain and I often took the calls.  He was stuck, even though he had several people trying to help him be happy and successful, he was stuck.  His physical, emotional and mental issues provided him just enough resources to participate in the world, but not enough to make progress in his life.

            I wrestle with how to keep my son from getting stuck.  We talk about new things that he could try, new places that he could go.  We talk about never having to settle for a story that you are not happy in.  We talk about looking for God’s invitation and hearing His voice.  He’s had summer jobs that he did not like, but they were short-term and goal-oriented as he tried to raise money for a big trip.  We’ve asked him if he wants to work those jobs again and he has said no and we have honored that.  As he approaches the end of high school, there will be some big decisions with where to live and what to do.  He has an approaching opportunity to change his hand…I want to equip him to do that well. 

           

A moment to reflect:

Where is it most likely that your child would get stuck?  How could you help them change their hand?