Joshua and Mad Skillz

I must admit I have been frustrated lately. I thought that I could accomplish things so much more quickly than I actually can. In fact I often end up taking weeks, months, or years longer to acomplish what I originally wanted to do. I tell myself that I am a great programmer and system administrator and that means that everything should work the way I want it to. And I can also instantly learn everything just by reading it once, which means I don’t have to budget time to work at learning. YEAH RIGHT! You would think this is a fairly obvious lie that I have been telling myself, but in fact the lies that we tell ourselves are often the hardest to detect.

So how does Joshua fit into all of this? Well I was studying the book of Joshua with a group of guys tonight and it was talking about how God had commanded Joshua to lead the people of Israel into the promised land across the Jordan river. The land had been promised to their patriarch Abraham generations ago, and while it belonged to them they had not yet possesed it. They had to cross the river and fight for what God had given them. It occurred to me that I am in a very similar situation. The gifts God has given me with natural abilities, time, money, etc need to be pursued and captured. Just because they are within my grasp does not mean that I am using them the way God intended. I need to work really hard at pursuing whatever God lays before me. And yes that applies to things other than geeky skills, like maybe mowing the lawn and perhaps even relationships.