All Vern needs to hear is the word “walk” and he is ready to charge out the door. Bee doesn’t get as excited, but she will comply without resistance. These two French Bull dogs have no idea what waits for them outside. It doesn’t matter. Their human master has said the magic word and they are off.
If we could only be as compliant..
In chapter thirteen of the book of Numbers, God tells Moses to send out twelve men to spy out the Promised Land. So Moses did just that. He chose one man from each of the twelve tribes and told them to go and scout out the land and bring a report back to him.
When the people saw the men approaching, they must have been excited. Two men carried a grape vine between them with ripe and delicious grapes. But that was where the good news ended. Filled with fear, ten of the men reported that the men were like giants and we were like grasshoppers.
Two of the men had a different report. Instead of focusing on the giants and the fortified cities, they placed their attention on their Almighty God. But it didn’t matter. By this time, the seeds of fear had infiltrated through the entire mass of people.
God was angry at the people and how they lacked faith in him. So he sent them on a journey in the desert for forty years until the entire generation of people died off. It was only then that Caleb and Joshua began moving towards the homeland that God had promised.
How often are we consumed with fear that keeps us walking around in the same circle for years? A fear that can never be overcome until we put to death the voices of others that want us to stay put?
For eight long weeks, I have been recovering from an accident that fractured a bone in three places. I will find out today if I can start bearing weight or I will need to stay off of it for several more weeks.
It has been easy to sit in my chair looking outside. But soon, I will get the news that I can start going out on my own. What will my world be like now? Are there voices of insecurity and doubt rummaging around in my brain? Yes. But, I do know that there is a God that is so much larger than any giant I can face.
As for Vern, he has returned. Apparently, he had a good walk and now he is enjoying the rest that comes from an eventful walk out into the world. A rest that can be ours when we obey the voice of an almighty God and shut out the voices of men.
