Stepping into Faith

 In the Old Testament, Joshua chapter 3, the ancient Israelites were told they would cross the Jordan river on dry ground. As the priests carrying the ark of the covenant approached the river, there was no sign anything would happen. And nothing happened until after they had stepped into the water.

From my understanding of the scripture, it seems that it wasn't the feet of just the first couple of priests stepping into the water, but it was when all the feet of the priests had gotten wet that the river's flow rose up into a heap and the people crossed over.

Did any of them have any doubts when the first priest stepped into the water? And it should be kept in mind that the river was overflowing its banks so it wasn't a small thing to cross.

Isn't that how stepping into the unknown is? 

We can see the other side of the river. We know where we want to go, but how to cross isn't really known. Are there rocks we'll trip on? Are there undercurrents waiting to pull us down? How deep is the water? Is is safe to cross? Is there a section where we'll sink in like quicksand? 

I experienced the "quicksand" one time when I tried crossing a stream in the backcountry of southern Utah years ago, I found my feet and lower legs sucked into the sediment and I had to quickly backtrack, and try to free my feet.

Our dream on the other side of the river is where we desire to be. But there is a lot of uncertainty in crossing.

There are those who have crossed similar rivers and stand on the other side. We can use them as mentors and guides. They're more familiar with potential pitfalls and dangers to avoid. Most of all, they know that by stepping into the river the way begins to open up, and we just need to proceed in faith.

However, life on our current side of the river is comfortable, known, and even certain in its fairly predictable way. But the other side is our promised land, where our dreams are and where we want to be.

We need to believe that while is it may appear to be impossible to cross, the way will open up when we actually start taking steps toward that goal.

Yes, thinking about and visualizing our desired destination is important. It helps us to begin to believe we can reach our dream. It helps to change our mindset, our belief systems, our paradigms that keep us where we are. But we need to decide to take action and then take the necessary steps. We must decide and act or crossing to our dreams will just remain wishful thinking.

For some people the way may open up quickly and more completely, revealing the path to go. For most the path opens and reveals itself one or two steps at a time. Frequently we don't realize the progress we're making and too often we stop and give up just as we're starting to gain ground. Sometimes it's not until we have crossed over that we can see the remarkable path we took.

To act in faith is less mysterious than most people realize, yet it has the power to transform us and our lives. I think the hardest part of acting in faith is letting go of the perceived reality we physically see and "seeing" things through the eye of faith.