Backpacking through Joshua - Week 3

I'm not sure if anybody else felt the same, but I think this week's backpacking adventure consisted of a particularly tough part of the road. Not just for Joshua and his people who had to cross the Jordan, but also for me. I read the part over and over - in English, then in German, then again in English... and I am still not sure if I can wrap my head around what I read.

The whole idea of following a leader is a tough one. Especially if you are German... Maybe it is because I was raised not to follow. Maybe because I was taught to think and because I always chose a way in life that was not taken by everybody else, the one "less traveled"...

But in this passage, the Israelites are told to purify themselves and then to follow. To keep their eyes on the ark of the covenant and follow God. The ark of the covenant might be a reminder and a representation of their old traditions, their history, their identity. When you follow someone or something, you give up (at least a part of) your identity. Is that a good thing? Hmmm. Sometimes. Maybe.

I can see how giving oneself up for the LORD is a good thing, especially when you are promised great things in return. But what if these promises are lies? People who commit suicide and blow themselves up just because they believe that they will get into heaven in return... If you follow someone because you think you will get an advantage out of this, isn't that more of a business deal than anything else...

At first glance it seems like "following" is an easy thing to do, but man, if you want to do it right, if you want to follow the right leader, it is so hard! Maybe the secret lies in purifying oneself... But how can you do that? Isn't that something that only Jesus can do for me?

I think I still have to ponder this passage a little more...

One thing comes to mind though, is a song by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a Lutheran priest and took many different roads in his life. He also travelled to many other places to teach and lead, to learn and follow, and just to share his faith. He travelled to Mexico, Cuba, Italy, Spain, England and Libya. He didn't cross the Jordan, but one of his roads led him across the ocean to America, to Harlem. No matter where he went, his leader was always the same person, our Lord. Just like Joshua, he helped to lead God's people to freedom, but because he lived during difficult times and he chose the Lord (and not someone else) as the leader of his life, one of his roads lead him straight into a concentration camp, where he died as a martyr. While being imprisoned, he wrote one of my favorite church songs: "Von guten Mächten"/ "By gracious powers".
The song in and of itself is wonderful, but there is one stanza that has always made a big impression on me:

And when this cup you give is filled to brimming
With bitter suffering, hard to understand,
We take it thankfully and without trembling
Out of so good, and so beloved a hand.

To not only bear suffering by crying out to the Lord but by actually accepting suffering or as he did sure death "thankfully and without trembling" is just amazing. Who can say that about their faith? I am not sure if I do have such strong faith that I can follow the Lord down a road full of suffering and on top of this be thankful and not even tremble. Amazing! Just amazing!

Listen to a German version of the song here.



Find out more about D. Bonhoeffer