bridges

It has been 2 years or so since I've posted on here.  I was reminded of it the other day, thanks to my wife drawing attention to it.  I suppose I should have had plenty to post on while in grad school, but I don't think I had the energy to write more when I was not writing my papers.  Perhaps I should learn a thing or 2 from my wife who tells stories with pictures.  http://www.nafitz.blogspot.com/

Just some brief thoughts.  Our pastor, Jim, has been taking us through Exodus.  Today, we concluded that series with Joshua leading the crew into the promised land (finally!).  The journey was incredibly long and filled with plenty of trials and catastrophe.  The leader, Moses, didn't even get to go into the land due to his own disobedience.  However, God clearly led them, whether it was by cloud or a pillar of fire.  He lead them across the sea out of Egypt by parting the waters.  How appropriate and beautiful that he ends this section of story, with perfect pericope or bookend if you will, by again leading them across waters.

What struck me is yes we often lose sight of where we are being taken, even though the promise is so very amazing and what we left behind was so terrible.  Yet we pine for what we had before, because it was what we knew, even if we have had our fair share of signs and wonders to remind us.  We are now literally on the shores of something new, of promise being fulfilled and God still requires us to have faith.  He asked Joshua to have the priests lead into the Jordan river with the ark of the covenant.  My wife said she learned in Bible College that the Jordan river wasn't one where there was a gradual lead from the bank into the water. She said as you step from the bank of the river into the water, you would find yourself immediately deep in the water.  So, this is a pretty big thing to ask of the priests in their robes, carrying the ark, to just plunge in.  (Remember that passage where they weren't carrying it properly and a guy tried to keep it from falling and was struck dead by God?  I'm sure they thought of that as they were crossing too)

Pastor Jim said God makes promises to us.  Then he takes us on a journey to get there.  We encounter obstacles. He removes them.  Then, it is our job to remember and learn.

I was thinking about this story of the river crossing and our stepping into God's promises. I think, we believe that God removes our obstacles from him, and find ourselves looking for a bridge.  A nice and easy bridge to get across.  So we search and search, looking for a way across.  We may get discouraged, seeing our destination right in front of our eyes.  So, then we plan, and gather our resources and decide, ok let's build our own bridge.  What if we are missing the point of where God is asking us to get our feet wet?