UNCHARTED

Because you have never been this way before!

The Israelites had come a long way, and for so many years they had been stuck in the desert with the hope that one day they would get to the land that is flowing with milk and honey as promised by God. In chapter 3 of the book of Joshua, the Bible records that they set out from Shittim and went to Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. At this point, God gives Joshua very specific commands; He is to tell the Israelites that when they see the ark of the covenant of the Lord God ( the ark of the covenant was a symbol and was associated with God’s presence), and the Levitical priests carrying it. They are to move out from there position and follow it. They were to keep a distance of around 800 meters between, they are told to do this for this one reason; the route they were taking was new and they had never been this way before. In essence, God is asking them to allow Him to take the lead into a place that is unknown to them.

 In this context, a lot of things defined the circumstances in which the Israelites were in as a community that often come to play in our day to day life. In this article, I'm sharing three things that I believe will be of great significance when we find ourselves at a place or a situation that is unfamiliar to us.

Uncertainty

I recently move to a new residence and I remember during my house hunting, all I had in mind was the things I would want to have in my new residence. One of the priorities was good water supply which was quite hard to come by. I eventually found an Ideal house and moved in and anxiety took a better part of me with so many questions flooding my mind; What would my new residence be like? What challenges should expect? How are my next-door neighbors like? Who are they?  just to mention a few, All this was because I had never been here before. The place was altogether new to me.

We often find ourselves in a place of uncertainty in life and it is dominated with fear and anxiety of the unknown, this is can be brought about by the present circumstances; probably wondering if we have the capacity to deal with what is to come. A time it is out of the past experience that got our composture knocked down. Whether you are beginning your studies at whichever level, probably getting to a relationship, marriage, new workplace, expecting first born child, moving to a new city just to mention a few, all this is often dominated with uncertainty and can either act as a hindrance or a stepping stone because it will determine which path we take and the choices we make moving forward.

The ‘Us’ Mentality (Judges 6:1-12)

The story of Gideon is one of my favorite stories in the Bible; here God had given victory and dominance to the Israelites in there new land, and yet time to time they would turn there back to God and worship the Idols they found in their new land. Out of their disobedience, God would give them to the hands of their enemies. At this time they were under the oppression of the Midianites. In Judges 6, the angle of God appears to Gideon and says to him “The Lord is with you, Mighty warrior”, He immediately begins to complain to God and he does so with the use of the pronoun “Us”…yet at this moment he was being addressed as an individual.

     13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

One time we were having a bible study with some youth from different churches and it was quite a good one, one member was making a contribution to the discussion and he said; “we from this particular church do not believe…..” I got stuck at “we” and for a moment thought about it. Would God expects us to give an account as ‘we’ or as ‘I’.

It gets to a point in life when we cannot move with the crowd be it, family or friends, not because you don't need them but because they will hardly understand you in those moments. Friends you see when God brings us to the existence, he deals with me and you individually and He holds me and you accountable to Him at a personal level and therefore we ought to move forward with confidence because God is interested in me and you personally.

The Force to Reckon With

The nature of politics in my motherland Kenya is in such a way that if you want to win elections easily in the lower seat offices, then you choose the political party that you identify with carefully because it matters a lot. If you run with a party that is less prominent; no matter how good your manifesto may look and sound, chances of winning is quite limited and this is not only in Kenya but most of the third world country, often because it is all about loyalty and power. In 2013, I ran for an office at the university as a director of social affairs. The dynamics of the time was about Faculty or rather schools as it is categorized at Kabarak University and every school wanted to have ‘their person’ manding the student leadership. One school that won a great number of seats was the school of law for one reason, they had numbers. I had the first raw experience with this and realized how powerful it is to have a strong force behind you when you are pursuing anything. 

An account of Jesus meeting a Samaritan woman is recorded in the book of John 4 and I’d suggest you read it if you have never. Her name was not given, the author refers to her as the Samaratina woman, she was just an ordinary woman when she met Jesus. They had a chart and in a moment she realized who she was conversing with. She had an experience with the man Jesus and when she went back to the village, the author depicts confidence and excitement in her as she goes calling out to people telling them and to come and see this man Jesus!

John 4:28 & 29

28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”

She did this because of the encounter she had, the narrative of her life and that of Samaria changed as a result of this encounter. First, Thousands of people believed in Jesus and secondly the barrier of enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans was brought down because of Jesus and the disciples spent two days there against the norm, they were not welcomed before.

Friends as we venture into places and seasons that we have never been before in life, I’d love to propose to you that we reckon with the heaves, make a call to the father through prayer. You see the path we take every day maybe uncharted to me and you but certainly not to God, He is the force we need to reckon with!