Be Strong and Courageous!

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9 NASB

I need to know God is there. What about you?

Once when I was in college I went with one of my roommates to the swimming center on campus. We were supposed to be...well...swimming. Instead we got in the water and watched people jump and dive off of the diving platforms (like the ones they use in the olympics). It looked like so much fun! These weren't even pros...they were just college kids jumping.

My friend and I watched, giggled, and after enough people had taken the free falling plunge, we decided...well, we could do that too.

I began my climb up the platforms. There were three levels--let's refer to them as small, medium and large. So where do I go...to the top. Yes sir, I climbed my happy, courageous, little hiney to the top platform (which I have been told since this incident was about 2 stories high.)

I walked out to the edge. Looking down truly didn't bother me as much as looking out in to the emince open space that was in front of me. My stomach fluttered. There was a group of students in the water that cheered me on with the typical, "You can do it" and "It's not that bad--just jump!"

I stepped back and thought, "Don't think about it Tracy. Just go." And I did. I took a few quick steps and felt the exhiliration of free falling...until I hit the water.

Apparently, I was traveling about 35mph just before I hit the water. I hadn't pointed my toes, so the shear force of the air rising toward me from the pool pushed my legs just far enough apart that I smashed my knees into the water...at 35mph.

I screamed under water. I used my arms to pull me to the surface and then to the side of the pool. By that time the Lifeguard was there and my friend was by my side. Someone had gone to get the diving coach for help.

I will honestly never forget what this guy said...I'm laughing just thinking about it. "Now why did you do this? Are you a diver or just a free-spirit?" Hahaha...ummm the later.

I ended up on cruches for several weeks and then had to have orthoscopic surgery on both knees during the summer.

Sadly, I have experienced a lot of fear since this incident. I'm not sure that I realized how truly tramatizing this event was for me. I became afraid of heights, very timid about exherting myself at all in anything that my be physically strenuous, and terribly afraid of falling from any height.

But the fear didn't stop there. That's the really disgusting thing about fear...it spreads. I became more and more afraid of more and more things.

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous!" These words seemed to allude me.

Ok, how? The situation with the diving platform alone seemed to scream "Don't do it! See what courage got you."

I told a friend about the platform diving incident one day and she ask, "Why did you do that?"
To which I responded, "I have no idea."

In Joshua's story he hadn't been watching the other Israelites jump off the cliff into the Red Sea and hope for the best. He did not take up Moses' position on a whim. Instead he had seen God part the sea! And the Lord said, "Moses my servant is dead. So now arise (take his place), go over this Jordon, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them, the Israelites" (Josh. 1:2 AMP)(my emphasis).

God did not tell me to climb the platform, walk to the edge, not think at all about the consequences and jump. I did that. That wasn't courage...that was foolishness and impatience.

God wants to give us courage. He says often in His word to "Take courage." As if He is giving it to us- to take it.

I realize that as I sit here and write this blog that I'm jumping again. I have been timid about getting my writing out there... afraid even. But there is a huge difference in running forward in impatience, and urgency, and jumping into a dangerous situation; and being encouraged by your Father God to jump into His arms.

I get a very vivid picture in my minds eye of a small child on the diving board with daddy out in the water, arms out stretched saying, "Jump. Daddy's got you. I promise I'll catch you. Come on, now. Jump."

I need to know He is there..." for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."