Rocks To Remember All He’s Done For You…
10/6/2016
One of my favorite stories of the bible is the story of Joshua leading the Israelites across the Jordan River (loosely Joshua 3 and 4). You know this familiar story – they get to the raging river, they need to cross to the other side, and God parts the water so they may freely walk through dry ground. The miracle is amazing! But it’s not the miracle of that gets me every time – after all, we know God to have parted great bodies of powerful water before this one, along with lots of other miracles. It’s Joshua’s counsel to the leaders of the 12 tribes that convicts me.
You see, Joshua knew it was likely that the leaders would cross that great river, and then in their humans, look back over their should at the waters raging, and (too soon) think, “wow – I’m pretty special to have made it across that raging water.”Joshua counseled them to pick up rocks from the middle of the dry ground at the center of the riverbed to remind them later of the miracle and the Lord had done for them.
I particularly like this story because it is timeless. As a believer, called to ministry in the marketplace, this story provides me a great reminder everyday. Many of us are gifted to be missionaries in the workplace – living out our faith and our purpose in the day-to-day business settings of the world. When we seek His guidance in this mission field, the Lord is faithful and provides business strategy, necessary counsel and guidance in key decisions (and the minutia) of the day. The temptation to take pride in the business success is strong. After all, it’s so easy to look back and take the credit for crossing over the raging waters when the parting of it is a distant memory.
I’ve made it a habit to heed the wisdom of Joshua and I “pick up rocks”. I build rock walls to remind me all the Lord has done to make my ministry His in the marketplace. Each rock represents a successful decision or strategy (or an unsuccessful one that led to a successful one) that I was gifted with because of my reliance upon the Creator of the Universe in all things, even the mundane decisions of running a business day to day. The rock wall also serves as encouragement of what has been and what will be again. My rock wall has been everything from sticky notes stuck together on a wall, handwriting on a white board, or a simple list that I keep adding to in a notebook. It doesn’t matter, so long as it serves as a reminder that I’m not in this alone and that thankfully I don’t have to rely upon my own genius to know all the answers (because then I would certainly fail).
What has the Lord done for you in your business or work? I urge you to start your own rock wall. It will remind you that you don’t have to worry how you’ll get across the raging waters, and that you have the best business partner in the Holy Spirit residing right inside you.
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