The Circle of Love

So the LORD gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their forefathers, and they took possession of it and settled there. The LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the LORD handed all their enemies over to them. Not one of all the LORD's good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled. – Joshua 21: 43-45

The Israelites followed the rules and God followed through.

Interesting…

As a Christian, of course, this immediately makes me think of the two foundational rules that Jesus gave us.

Love God with all that you are, and love your neighbor as yourself.

And then I think of all of the good promises that God made in Deuteronomy 28: 1-14.

And magically it all forms together like Voltron. The key to a fulfilling life of abundance and joy is putting God first and loving your neighbor as yourself.

The putting God first part is obviously tricky for most, especially for those of us who are like “ummm God… I don’t believe in a God.” I can dig that, so here’s how I see this.

Let’s start with love your neighbor as yourself. That sounds all find and dandy right? We should treat others how we want to be treated. It seems very simple. But ya know… I have found it to be very hard. I can’t name how many times someone has made me want to treat them worse than I treat myself. Maybe they cut me off in traffic or took my parking space. Maybe they cheated me out of some money or disrespected someone I love.

And in an even more subtle sense I may violate this principle purely out of perspective. It is easy to get lost in the details of our daily lives to the point where we may please ourselves at the expense of others. We may not intend to hurt others when we do this but it can happen.

This is where God comes in for me. When I focus on loving God then I am really forced to step outside of myself. And since I am no longer the center my life, I am better able to look at my actions and motivations in the context of how they affect others. So loving God isn’t just about praising the man/woman upstairs. It also becomes a way for me to better interact with the world. It enables me to be better at loving others.

That love is powerful.

When others start to feel that love from us it helps them do the same in their lives. And as this love spreads fantastic things start to happen. Folks start opening doors that were shut, providing opportunities that they normally wouldn’t, reaching out to lend helping hands.

When we take that leap of faith and decide to open up and spread that love, it comes back. Some of those open doors, opportunities, and helping hands are extended to us as well. And if we can remember how it all started, that it all started by loving God and others as ourselves, we will keep repeating the cycle.

Love God, love others, that love spreads, love comes back to us, we receive the love, we thank God for this new love, and love others some more.

Rinse and repeat.

This is true magic at work.

Today’s Reading: Joshua 19-21: Luke 2:25-52

The Mountain Top

When Joshua was old and well advanced in years, the LORD said to him, "You are very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over.” – Joshua 13: 1

When I read these words for the second time tonight several images flashed before my eyes.

The first image was of Moses. I imagined what it must have been like for Moses to go to that mountain top with God, take a good long look at it and achieve his eternal rest in the presence of God.

It must have been wonderful.

The second image was of Martin Luther King Jr. My parents are from Birmingham Alabama, and I grew up learning about him and other folks and events of the civil rights movement. Last year I went back with my Dad for a family reunion. As we drove to my Great Aunt’s house (the house my Great Grandfather built with this own hands) my Dad casually pointed out various homes of people in his childhood along the way.

“The first black mayor lived in that house. It was firebombed by the klan.”

“One of the girls who were killed in the church bombing lived there. I knew her.”

“Angela Davis grew up there. Her mom was a teacher in my school.”

Wow, wow, wow.

Then I thought of the last speech that King ever gave. He spoke of how he had been to the mountain top, he had seen the Promised Land, and even though he may not make it there with us, he knew we would make it. Here is what flashed in my mind.

I think about all of this now, over forty years later. I and many other folk have opportunities that we may not have had back then. We have a black president. We have a voice. Although there are still systemic issues to deal with, they can and are overcome every single day by millions of people of all races, genders, backgrounds and sexuality.

Much has been accomplished.

But like God said above to Joshua, and like King said to us over forty years ago there is still much work to be done.

I believe that when we pursue our God given dreams and walk the paths of purpose laid out for our lives we are doing this work. The battles we fight, the struggles we overcome, the wars that we win… they are not only for our own good. They are also for the good of others. They are for the good of those other folks watching our steps who desire to walk in them. They are for the good of our children who will be nourished by our dreams. They are for the good of the world as a whole.

The brighter we shine the more light we can spread through the world.

So when you are thinking of giving up just remember that you can do it. You can do it because other Moses' came before you and paved the way.

And one day hopefully we will all be like Joshua. God will look at us and say, “there is still much work left to be done, but you did good my son… you did good.”

Then, we will be able to rest easily knowing that we held strong as that next link in the chain of love, progress, prosperity, and freedom.

Let’s get it.

Dedicated in loving memory to a mother, daughter, friend and child of God.

Today’s Reading Joshua 13-15; Luke 1:57-80

Where There's a Will There's a Way

“Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.” –Joshua 3: 15-17

Now we meet Joshua, the successor of Moses. And as only a successor of Moses would, he gets off to a pretty gangsta start.

Israel must cross the river Jordan in order to enter the Promised Land and reach their first foe; Jericho. But of course, as has become the theme so far in the Old Testament, an impossible obstacle stands before them.

The river is high when they approached it and they have to get everybody across. So what does Joshua do? He has the Levites lead with the Arc of the Covenant. When the Arc reaches the water, the river stops flowing and the people are able to walk across the dry riverbed.

One of the scariest things about pursuing our dreams is that they tend to seem impossible at first. After all, that’s why it is a dream right? If it was easy to achieve you’d have already done it.

But when we go for dreams that are in line with our talents and purpose there is always a way to achieve them.

I’m sure you have heard about Ben Underwood. Ben was diagnosed with cancer in his eyes when he was three years old and had both of them surgically removed.

Tragic.

But he didn’t let that stop him from living as normal a life as possible. With theencouragement of his mother to use his other four senses to navigate the world, Ben created a form of echolocation to serve as his new eyes.

Echolocation is what dolphins use. It is also the logic behind SONAR. You make a sound. That sound bounces off of objects that it encounters and comes back to you. And based on how long it takes for that sound to come back you can determine the precise location of that object.

With this miraculous skill, Ben could not only tell where the things around him were, but he could also “see” cars, cups, fire hydrants, and trash cans.

No matter what your dream is, it can be done. When you get to that point where it seems impossible just remember that “impossible” is God’s specialty.

Just keep moving forward. Where there’s a will there is always a way.

Here is Ben's Story...

Today’s Reading: Joshua 1-3; Mark 16