“Get ready to cross the Jordan River.” (Joshua 1:2)

Treading water gets tiring. Getting to that distant shore seems impossible, so I keep treading water, momentarily safe. My efforts get me nowhere but exhausted; I can’t keep doing this. What’s the other alternative, drowning? It’s terrifying to stop treading water, scary to start moving forward. I can’t reach the shore, but I don’t want to drown. So, I’ll just keep marking time, stalling, until someone rescues me.

The Israelites had been wandering (treading water) for forty years. What had they lost because they wouldn’t move forward? Yes, it’s scary to leave what’s familiar and move ahead, even into a Promised Land. “Giants” are there, as are cities with fortified walls and established armies. And they have to cross a flooded river to even get started (3:15-16).

Sometimes wandering familiar landscape, biding time, is comfortable, too comfortable. In fact, two tribes even plan to remain at the border after the others cross over (1:13-15). Neither God nor Joshua chastises them for that. But, oh, what they’ll miss out on by staying back, by treading water. 

Not everyone has been treading water during Covid. Many have had to reinvent their work and school and are busier than ever, perhaps more productive even. But for others of us, has semi-isolation grown comfortable? Even with plenty of time on our hands to “do good,” has it grown harder to engage with people, even remotely? Harder to summon the energy to read more Scripture and devotional tools, to sustain an exercise time with videos, to devote time to a new hobby? Are we treading water, waiting for rescue in the form of a vaccine?

It’s time to move forward, to “take possession of the land [2021] the Lord is giving” us (1:11b). How do we start? 

• Certainly not on our own. God gave Joshua and the Israelites the promise of His presence as they crossed from the too-familiar to the unknown; we can be assured of that, too. “I will be with you...do not be terrified or discouraged” (1:5,9).
• Certainly not without preparation. Inevitably, we’ll encounter difficulties, so first we ground ourselves in Scripture. God specifically tells the Israelites to “meditate on it...do not turn from it...do everything written in it” (1:7-8) if they want to be successful.
• Certainly not by engaging unsafely with people. We have our giants in the land, too. But we can move forward even in and from the isolation of our home. Joshua tells the Israelites to spend three days preparing to cross over. We must be deliberate, thoughtful, and intentional about what we want to swim toward. Then we must stop treading water and start moving forward.

What have you felt slipping away as you’ve been biding your time, waiting for an end to Covid land? Ask God to help you ”be strong and courageous” (1:6) to swim toward whatever Promised Land He has for you this year. And don’t stop to tread water as the two tribes did; whatever you’re promised, seek out the whole of it: “God will give you every place where you set your foot” (1:3).