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“Where are we going?” the man asked.
“On a walk.” The man ahead of him answered with a vocal nudge of stating the obvious.
“I know that, but where are we walking to?”
“We’re walking in a circle” came another voice of obviousness behind him
“Why would we walk in a circle? We won’t get anywhere” he replied.
“We’re going to get into that city” a fellow marcher chimed as he pointed to the giant walls to their left
“How? Walking in circles around it doesn’t seem to be getting us closer to it!”
The wise looking old man to his right sighed, “When we walk enough circles, you’ll see the walls come down with just a shout”
“Walking circles and shouting…that’s our plan to take over Jericho?” he countered
A leader overheard them and turned with enthusiasm, “No, it’s not our plan. It’s the work we do to fulfill His plan” as he pointed toward the camp.
Still confused, “what if we just attack it instead like anyone else would?”
The leader paused and then whispered, “Go ahead. But you’ll walk alone.”
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I imagine a conversation like this while the Israelite army marched circles around the city of Jericho on their way to conquering and claiming the land God set aside for them. In the Bible, it’s pretty straight forward. Over a few lines of text, Joshua is told by God to have the army march around the city once per day for six days and seven times on the seventh day, then shout as loud as they can, and the heavily fortified walls will fall over – and fall they did. But between those lines, you have to imagine there might have been some conversations like this one.
It didn’t make sense. The walk that seemed most appropriate to the cause was a straight line to the walls in attack mode. But that wouldn’t work. Instead, they had to take a walk toward faith and away from control. One thing I truly love about the story of Jericho, whether you are a person of Christian faith or not, is the clear message of “stronger together”. In order to bring the walls down the people had to move as one. Even though they weren’t attacking directly, they still had to be united.
Well, that’s fun and all but it’s 2020 and I don’t see myself marching around any cities to conquer them in the next few days. I’m guessing you’re not in that situation either. But, I do think we all have some walls in our lives. Walls that keep us from being the people we are called to be. Walls we’ve tried to attack alone but had our efforts fail in vain. Your wall might be an addiction – drugs, alcohol, porn, social media, video games. You possibly stand at the foot of the wall of divorce, heartbreak, or financial struggle. Maybe you scaled the wall of insecurity only to be knocked off near the top by something negative your spouse said about you. Or, you could be like me and the wall of self-doubt stands firmly around nearly every goal you think of.
Our inclination is to do one of two things when faced with such walls. One, we go full charge and start punching the wall with all our might – sweat drips from our forehead, our knuckles bleed, and we scream out. We fight and fight hard but no stone moves. Or, second, we look up at the wall, squint our eyes in the sun, look back down at the ground, shrug our shoulders, sigh, and walk away. Our fight ends before we even try.
What if there is a third option? What if, like those at Jericho, you start to take a walk around the walls? Maybe you’d find out the stone has a gap in it on the other side or that someone before you knocked over most of the stones in one spot and you can begin to climb over it? What if you’re willing to find victory with perseverance instead of instant gratification?
Last week, I challenged you to think of the process toward your goals by taking the next right step, then the next one, and so on. When you do that enough times, you start to walk. You start to circle the walls that keep you from who you want to be. I’m also certain that if you fight in one spot or you give up and walk away, you’re going to take the bait of our story. You’re going to walk alone. Instead, if you start to walk and take the right steps one after another, you’re almost sure to find yourself walking with someone else. You’ll start to see people who are circling those same walls. You’ll meet them as they overcome addiction, find themselves again after a divorce, and walk with their chest high in confidence because they are taking action.
The walk might seem futile. We can bet those who marched around Jericho had a moment or two of, “is this working?”. You’re allowed to doubt the journey and even deviate from the path from time to time, but the only way to bring the walls down is to keep walking. You grow as you overcome resistance and meet others to go with. You begin to build the strength in your proverbial lungs that will allow you to take the final next right step.
With that strength, you give the final shout to rip apart the walls and you walk yet again. This time though you are going into the places and toward the person, you were meant to be. Your goals are fulfilled and life is more clear. You’ve found a tribe to walk with along the way and you now get to live more fully but it was all because of the humble walk.
Weekend LIFE Challenge
Two principles of the Brother’s LIFE Council are to maintain integrity and champion fellowship. Your walk is going to help you do both. This weekend, it is worth your time to consider a few questions:
- What are the walls that are keeping you from what you want to do or know you could be?
- If you were to stop fighting or running away, what would it mean to “walk”? What are the steps you can take daily to keep walking and keep growing?
- Who are the people in your life that you know will walk with you when they see you start?
After answering those, make a move to start the walk. You’ve identified the wall, you have an idea or two to start with, and you might have a person or two that can go with you. Call those people and share with them this exercise. Tell them what your walls are, how you hope to start walking, and give them one very concrete thing they can do to go with you. Don’t ask for their “support” because it’s too broad and doesn’t give them direction. Here are some ideas to build fellowship with them and maintain your integrity to bring down your walls:
- They can text you each morning to see how you stuck to your steps the day before
- You can agree to have lunch once a month where you’ll share your progress and invite them to openly speak into your life.
- You can ask them to literally walk with you (could be on a phone call) every couple days to give you time to reflect with them.
Whatever it is you need, ask them. We’re often scared or feel like a burden when we do this but don’t. I’ll tell you from experience, as a friend my favorite thing about the LIFE Council is when one of the guys asks me to be a part of their walk in a concrete way. I feel purposeful and excited. Your friends will too. This weekend, link arms and take a walk to bring down the walls.