Holding onto faith in time of crisis

Left right left. Left right left marched the Israelites around Jericho’s massive defensive walls. No war cries, just marching. Most of them were not really sure why they were doing this preposterous and seemingly useless activity. All they knew was that Joshua, their leader, had told them to do it, and all he knew was that God had told him to do it. Once a day for six days around the wall they marched. On the seventh day, they marched around the city seven times and at the blast of the trumpet they finally broke their silence and let out a powerful loud roar. The walls collapsed (Josh. 6).

Many around the world are facing their very own Jericho. It has come in the form of illness, unexpected death, marital struggles, financial hardship, you name it. The walls are so strong and high that they feel intimidated, small and without a viable strategy for victory. When we feel overwhelmed, God’s strategy may be for us to simply keep putting one foot in front of the other and to trust him to either provide a battle plan or do the rest. Trusting Him may feel preposterous, risky, ineffectual, even useless. But faith, by nature, requires that we choose to believe anyway despite what we think and how we feel. We choose to believe that God will somehow someway give us victory because without faith only anxiety, fear and hopelessness remain.

As we face the present global health crisis, let’s all encourage one another to put on our shoes and keep marching around that wall until it collapses. Left, right, left …