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Joshua 6: 20
So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.


It is with gigantic amounts of awe and astonishment that I read through the sixth chapter of Joshua. What a guy, what a book. What faith. It's breathtaking to witness the amount of faith with which Joshua leads these people into Jericho, part of their promised land which has been shut up and kept from them. I close my eyes and imagine myself walking around a city for six days in silence. I imagine the almighty roar from all of us (me and my crazy friends) on that final day as we scream out, utterly desperate for the miracle, believing that somehow things will change and we won't be shut out from our promised land anymore.

And I want a piece of it. I want the walls that surround my promised land to come crashing down.

What does the silence mean? What does the shouting mean? It's kind of aggressive. Actually, the whole "taking of the city" is aggressive. Maybe the marching in silence is the slow and steady "wait" in which we find ourselves. The doing of whatever it takes to get to where you know you need to be. And then there is the release. Maybe it's when you're so fired up, so angry and desperate at the situation you're in that enough is finally enough. Maybe we need more aggression in our faith. Maybe we need to get so fed up with the way things are that after the waiting and marching and waiting and marching around the place of promise, all of a sudden it ends and the desperation for all we have been promised is fulfilled. We scream out to the heavens for change. Maybe then the walls will come tumbling down and we can rightly take what is ours.

Maybe that's what it takes. Maybe in our family, our church, our broken heart, our finances, our minds, that's what it takes. Don't give up on your promised land. She is waiting for you to take her.
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