School of Hard Knocks Graduate or Dropout

Anytime there's an opportunity to teach someone or something, there’s much effort in conveying an understanding. Understanding of rules, processes, laws, whatever is deemed important by the one teaching. Whether human or animal, the hope of the instructor is that the subject learns and carries the knowledge given throughout their life and shares it with others.

In a perfect world, lessons would be learned from other’s mistakes and not replicated instead.

Recently I tried to convey to my granddaughter the importance of listening to direction. As she expertly decorated my fingernails, I stressed to her that her parents weren’t just making noise with their voice; they were trying to keep her from suffering the effects of bad choices and making mistakes that could be avoided. Using the example of why teachers teach, where they got their information and the fact that her parents also had been-there-done-that, I tried to make my point clear and understandable...all the while wondering if I sounded like the Charlie Brown teacher to her ten year old ears.

Almost as if in the same breath, I also tried to convey to my recently engaged daughter, different analogies of lessons as she plans her future. In both scenarios my heart and goal is to keep each of them from having to learn hard lessons on their own; all the while knowing they will most likely end up doing so regardless of my efforts to divert the heartache.

As hard as we try, there are things that have to be learned the hard way. It’s always been so. Joshua reiterated all the happenings, sufferings, challenges and lessons that had gone on before his generation to the children of Israel as he renewed the covenant before he died. While stressing the importance of keeping the laws and following the rules, did he know in his heart they would all fall away and become null? I wonder. Pondering the miles walked, land cleared, challenges overcome, years and years of learning, leading, following, hauling around all the pieces of the Tabernacle and tents and provisions. Herding thousands of people and animals...it’s mind boggling to consider the wavering faith and trust these people had and the chore of wrangling hundreds of thousands of people and trying to keep their focus on God.

Finally, at one hundred and ten years old, Joshua was able to be relieved of his duties and die. After alllll the learning and all the teaching that he could muster and absorb and try to give to the people he loved and cared for, he was finally done. All he could hope was that they would pass his teachings to the next generation and so on.

And here I am, not even having lived half the life that Joshua had and I don’t feel that I’ve made a spittle on the map of where God wants me to go, or a dash on the list of what He wants me to do in this life.

Did Joshua do everything right? Was he too harsh, too soft, too wishy-washy in his beliefs? Were there times where he should have pushed harder or stepped back? Could he have spoken more clearly, been a better example, loved more, protected less, been more stern, less direct? Do we ask ourselves those things when we’ve finished our efforts with those we try to teach? Should we ask them in the process? Do we even reach out enough? I don’t know…

What I do know, is that Joshua listened to the godly examples who taught him-he listened to God. He did what God told him to do, and he left it at that.

Isn’t that really all we have to do? That sounds so easy. It really can be that easy.

I love this part of the story: Joshua 24: 1-28 here he is emphasizing how far they had come, the events and occurrences that led up to where they were now, finally in the land God promised them and enjoying all the blessings that came with it. (Mind you, these people are not the ones who suffered the entire time that it took to get there, they had died and this generation was reaping the benefits of the struggles and the wonderful land of promises. Literally eating the fruits of their ancestors' labor.) Joshua says to them, (14) “Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him…..Serve the LORD!” Then he goes on to say, if for some reason it doesn’t seem right to you to do so, then do what you want, but “as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD”

I envision Joshua standing before all the people: exasperated, weary, hands in the air, feeling that he had done all he could. “Hey, I’ve laid it all out for you, do what you will, but I’m serving the Lord and my family will too by God!” Then, slapping his old, cracked, dry and wrinkled hands together as if knocking the dust from them, he turns and walks away so he can finally rest.

Wow. Just digesting all that just went on, I know I’ve got my work cut out for me. I’d better get some good gloves! But honestly, the hardest part is actually the easiest. Once we learn to listen to God, to sit with Him and lay our concerns at His feet, it all falls into place and becomes clear. Joshua hoed the long row, but he had help. He did what he was told and learned from those who taught him well. As much as we try to direct others, even ourselves, it’s when we learn to let God have the reins that we succeed.