I’m considering changing that tagline. I know it’s probably making some people nervous, so I’ve rewritten this second sentence at least five times while deciding how long to keep the suspense going. Fortunately for those on the edge of their seats, I have to make sure my blog passes the review, so I won’t hold out any longer… This wildly exhilarating tagline is in fact connected to scripture. Here it is…
“March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets” (Joshua 6:3-4).
I’ll explain the connection in a second, but first, story time! Once upon a time, I was contracted to play keyboard when Israel Houghton was a guest here at Bridgeway. Per usual, I was required to come to a rehearsal on Thursday evening. I was excited to do something new, and because I live in DC, I left around 5 pm to get there by 6:30. Long story short, it started raining, traffic got heavy, and despite leaving early, 6:30 came and I found myself in standstill traffic, nowhere near the church. At this point, I was probably going to miss the rehearsal and possibly get fired before I even got to play. The only thing that saved me was that I eventually pulled up my GPS to navigate a detour away from the traffic. I didn’t do that initially because I had been to Bridgeway before and I felt like I knew where I was going. Using the GPS seems like such an obvious step, but it was a big deal for me because I secretly hate using the GPS. “Why?” you ask. I enjoy the suspense of not knowing what’s next in stories, but in real life, I like to feel like I know where I’m going.
Of course, there’s no GPS in scripture, but there is a story about a Hebrew army in a very similar spot. In Joshua 6, Joshua gets directions from God on how to conquer the city and come into this new territory, but notice that only Joshua gets the whole plan. If we consider the soldiers’ perspective, their path to victory means they get up every day and follow the same directions: march around the city one time. By the fifth or sixth day, I imagine they feel like they know the drill. Just like me trying to get to Bridgeway that night, they feel like they know where they are going because they know what has worked before. Also, like me, they eventually find themselves in a spot where doing what they’ve always done leaves them feeling stuck. In which case, the best way forward requires them to accept new directions.
Maybe you’re like the soldiers or maybe you’re like me. Maybe you’ve been leaning on what you’ve always known or what you’ve always done, but sometimes new circumstances and greater destinations require new directions. Even when we try to accept the need for new directions, we’re sometimes left with the question of what that direction is. In both the case of the soldiers in the scripture and me in my car, the answer comes from our connection to that which has a greater view than we do. Even with such a potentially helpful option, many of us still choose to trust our history more than we trust the One who holds the future.
I know that not everybody reading this is feeling stuck, but anybody who wants to move into new places in life can learn from those soldiers who were willing to walk around seven times instead of the one time they’d been used to. Stay connected and stay open to fresh direction from God. Intentional prayer and fasting are always great ways to refresh that connection. You can also do something as simple as having a conversation with somebody you don’t usually talk to, or maybe hit “Read full chapter” to go a little further the next time you read that “Verse of the Day” in the Bible App.
However we do it, we have to find a way to appreciate the assignment of one lap while still being willing to go seven when God says so. All that said, I think I am going to go ahead and change that tagline:
Good news! I’m honored to share my second entry in the Newsletter blog (aka, I didn’t get fired). BETTER news, it turns out that guided detour wasn’t a loss at all.
If you need help or support, please contact Care.
If you are looking for activities to meet others, check out our Events.
If you are looking for people to do life with, connect with our Groups.