When my kids were little, one of my favorite moments of Christmas was when they would open their carefully wrapped gifts. We had spent hours choosing just the right gift for each need or desire of each child. As toddlers, they were very excited about the gift. Once opened, they often couldn’t comprehend what the gift was or what the gift did. Sometimes a box full of parts required some assembly.
They had received an exciting gift but couldn’t yet understand or use the gift.
This is how the spiritual life feels sometimes. I’m told through scripture or teaching that I have received a gift. But for a variety of reasons, I either don’t know how to use the gift or maybe I’m not sure what the gift is. Sometimes, I feel like I’m on the verge of understanding something that is just out of my reach.
This week was a good example of this.
I was driving down the road the other day listening to bluegrass music on the radio. An old, familiar tune came on that has been covered by many bands over the years. It’s about marching around the walls of Jericho “and the walls came tumbling down”. In the biblical story, they used horns, not fiddles and banjos. But the story is well-known, coming from the Old Testament book of Joshua.
I began to think about how very odd it would be for a military commander to tell his troops to march around a city for six days. Then, on the seventh day, the commander tells his troops to shout and blow their horns and the walls of the city will fall. Can you imagine the reports flooding into the Pentagon about the military commander that lost his marbles on the battlefield? Yet, the biblical story records no instance of Joshua’s orders being questioned.
What would it be like to join the ranks of soldiers marching around that city? Would I really believe that God will tear down the walls? I admit I find it difficult to believe.
As I drove down the road, I got this strange sensation in my gut. It seemed to be trying to get my attention. I felt like I was being challenged. How many challenges in life require some kind of faith, patience, and persistence? Do I put legs on my faith and march around the fortresses that are difficult, expecting the walls to come down? Maybe I’ll march around the wall one day or two days. But six days, then a noisy, fully confident seventh day?
No. I do not. After a day or two, I quietly retreat to a safe distance to over-think the situation. I can tell you as an expert over-thinker that over-thinking seldom solves or accomplishes anything. Sometimes you have to lace up your boots, put some legs on your faith, and do some marching.
The next day, I went to church service. The message was about the different responses we choose when we encounter pain and difficulty in life. Internalizing our wounds can cause us to build walls around ourselves. Putting the thoughts of the message into my words, Jesus wants to enter our secret, walled-off garden and cause dead things to grow again.
The message was followed by another amazing ‘coincidence’. The closing song at the end of the service was called “Walls”... “We’ll sing glory as walls come crashing down”. (Music and lyrics by Fellowship Creative). That’s too much of a coincidence for even the worst skeptic.
I’m still taking this gift out of it’s wrapping. But as I understand it, this gift operates when I lace up my boots and start marching around the walls that hide me, the walls that keep me closed in, the walls that intimidate or scare me, and the walls that were built over a lifetime of angers and disappointments.
I’m not sure what that is going to be like, but it will be a glorious and exciting new day when the walls come crashing down.
Be blessed.
Psalm 145:17-18
“The Lord is righteous in all his ways
And kind in all his deeds.
The Lord is near to all who call on him,
To all who call out to him in truth.”
Copyright 2020 T.A. Boland
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