Jesus Isn't Decaf (By Naomi Meyers)

Heaving a sigh, he hauled himself to his feet. He was getting too old for this. Too old for the constant plotting and planning. Too old for strategizing. Too old to continue pulling along a group of adults who seemed to lack urgency, gumption, and faith. He was ready to retire, to rest. Ready to settle in and enjoy his old age. Ready to sit in front of his tent and look around at all the proof that God really does keep every single word of His promises. To that end, he picked up his walking stick and headed out. It was time for a one-sided conversation.

As Joshua walked, his mind wondered. What was really keeping those seven tribes from taking full possession of all God had promised them? Were they simply too lazy? Were they too comfortable where they were? Were they tired of war and uninterested in pushing out the current inhabitants of their promised land? Or was their faith simply not invested in the effort? 

The thought had his steps faltering, the hand gripping his walking staff tightening. Did the people still fully believe that what God had promised He would also perform? Had they forgotten the Jordan crossing? Jericho? The sun standing still? Had they misinterpreted the words, “Pursue your enemies, chase them down…for the Lord your God has given them over to you?” With words like that from which to draw strength, why were they so hesitant to step out, strike out, and claim all God had for them? What, exactly, were they waiting for? (Joshua 3,6,10:12-19)

It was the first question to cross Joshua’s lips as he confronted the people of Israel. So desperately did he need to know that it erupted, filterless, before any greeting. An accusation in the form of a question. “What are you waiting for? How long are you going to sit around, goofing off, failing to go in and take possession of the land God promised you? What is standing in your way? Are you too lazy? Scared? Uncertain? Or is your faith in God’s promise simply not what it needs to be for you to courageously enter in and conquer the land? Why, exactly, are you still hanging about in someone else’s promised land instead of claiming your own?” (Joshua 18:3)

They were legitimate questions. Especially from a man like Joshua. Hanging back when they could have been experiencing God’s best would have been unfathomable to him. He’d always been the one forging ahead. Pushing onward with bottomless faith when other men had long since exhausted their meager supply. If the people had simply followed Joshua and Caleb’s faithful leadership, they would have inhabited their promised land years ago. Joshua’s messaging hadn’t changed. Banish fear. Trust God. Emerge victorious. (Numbers 13-14) 

His tactics hadn’t changed, either. Gathering the mantle of his faith on their behalf, Joshua took charge, laying before them a plan of action meant to expedite their entry and establishment in the lands they had been promised. Men were sent out to investigate the land, record a description of all they saw. People. Towns. Plants. Land. They literally wrote it down. What they saw. Who they saw. Where they saw it. And Joshua, investigative notes in hand, came before the Lord and divided the land among the remaining seven tribes of Israel. In their lack of faith, Joshua stepped in, and, with faith great enough for the whole congregation, stood in the gap and made up the hedge for a generation who was too content with simply surviving instead of striving to obtain all God wanted to give them. (Joshua 18:4-10)  

Admittedly, as I read this account, I shake my head and wonder what made the people hold back. Seriously. It’s an honest question. Like Joshua, I literally want to look at them and ask what the hold-up is! See, I’d like to believe that if God promised me a gorgeous, mortgage free plot of land blooming with luscious vegetation and flowing with streams of glistening water, I’d surely take him up on it. Immediately. I find it absolutely appalling that these people didn’t jump at the chance to get busy living in their promised land! Yet, as the swirl of dust from my overactive righteous indignation settles, I find myself grudgingly admitting I might have done the same thing. Not because I didn’t want the completion of the promise. Not because I didn’t think God would hold up His end. Not even because I wasn’t willing to do the work for the promise to be fulfilled. No. I would hold off, hold up, hold back because I’m comfortable where I am and stepping out in faith means leaving comfortable behind.

Faith is rarely comfortable. Ask Peter. Seeing Jesus walking across the water toward them, he calls out, “If that’s really you, Jesus, command me to come to you, walking on the water as you are.” He couldn’t have been surprised at Jesus’ answer. Of course He’d bid Peter to come. Why wouldn’t he? In obedience, Peter faithfully stepped his sandaled feet from the sturdiness of the deck to the shifting waves of the sea. Outside his comfort zone. Outside his abilities. Outside his realm of anticipation. Carefully putting one foot in front of the other he stepped across the surface of the sea, his faith holding him in place. Until it faltered. Until the wind blew an extra gust. Until the sea rolled a bit harder. Until he looked down and realized that when Jesus called, he’d left comfort so far behind. 

There was only one thing for Peter to do. Only one thing Jesus called him to do. Follow his faith. The same faith that had him stepping off the boat onto the waves in the first place. Daring faith. Courageous faith. Unshakeable faith. Faith that fell so far outside his comfort zone he wasn’t sure it was worth it. Except it was. As amazing as walking on water was, surely the more amazing part of the day was the rescue. As Peter realized what he’d done, how far he’d come from the comfort of the boat, his faith faltered a bit. His moment of weakness nearly cost his life. But as the current tried to haul him under, Peter remembered the faith that had him leaving the boat in the first place and cried out to the One who had called him to come. And Jesus rescued Peter. Not by miraculously calming the waves. Not by tossing him back in the boat. No. Jesus drew him up to once again stand on the water. It was the new space, the new faith, Jesus had called him to inhabit. (Matthew 14:22-31)

Today, Jesus calls us all to that same place. A place where remaining in the comfortable space we currently inhabit is so much less appealing than stepping out on faith into the vast promises of God. A place from which we will never want to turn back. A place where the uncomfortable takes on ultimate comfort. A place we can only reach if we step out in faith and walk into the promised land of God. 

So many things hold us back. Physical comforts. Financial comforts. Spiritual comforts. We are reluctant to stretch ourselves. We are hesitant to spend our time in less comfortable places to spread comfort to those so much less comfortable than ourselves. We are reluctant to part with our resources, choosing instead to hoard them like they count in eternity. Sinking into our padded pews on Sunday morning, we sing the songs, pray the prayers, listen to the messages, content to go through the motions of spirituality. We live upstanding lives. We do good things. We tithe. We believe we make the cut for Heaven. But we never step out in faith and spend ourselves for God. 

I wonder what it would look like if we did. How would it impact our society, our nation, our world? How would it change our lives? How would it feel if, when Jesus calls us to come, go or do, we did just that? Immediately. Trusting that the One who calls us is faithful. Always. And He’s calling. Constantly. Calling us from our comfortable complacency into adventurous following. Uncomfortable faith. Faith that makes you squirm. Faith that makes you stretch. Faith that makes you grow. I don’t know what Jesus is calling you to do, but I hope you do it. I hope you step out on faith and follow the admonition of Mary to the servants at the wedding in Cana. “Whatever He says to you, you do it!” (John 2:5; Hebrews 11:1; I Corinthians 2:5; James 2:14-16; Proverbs 28:20; Deuteronomy 28:1; John 15:16)