Crossings…

We all have dreams of what we wanted to be when we grew up. One of mine was to be a bush pilot, flying fishermen and supplies to remote lakes in Alaska in my Cessna Caravan rigged, obviously, for amphibious. That didn’t pan out, so I tried for Air Traffic Control School in Missouri… made it in, had a date set. But from the beginning, I’d always wanted to be a writer… a screenwriter, a novelist, a producer/writer of radio plays (which got me interested in possible work as a foley artist as well). So there was a moment of choice. A Rubicon… or better; a River Ahava…

The fact is, that the moment of decision isn’t sitting at the Rubicon. Julius Caesar did not sit at the river and then make up his mind whether to cross it, enter Rome and start a civil war or not. He’d made up his mind long before. The river was only an obstacle to reveal the determination of his prior decision.

Ezra didn’t sit at the River Ahava deciding whether to cross it… that decision had been made. The River Ahava was the obstacle in determining in what WAY, he would cross that River and head to Jerusalem… with the king’s men for protection, or God?

And so our rivers, or obstacles, come up and we make a determination on whether our prior decisions will be carried out… what willingness do we have to see that decision through to the end? Our Lord asks us that question when He tells the disciples to count the costs of their discipleship… a question He asks you now.

I looked at my approval letter from the FAA and my time for reporting to Kansas City and although I was excited at the prospect, my decision to attempt becoming a writer had been made.

You see, our rivers are crossed either way. It’s a defining moment not as a mark of decision, but a defining moment as a mark of wholeheartedness. The priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant did not decide at the Jordan River whether they would walk into its swiftly moving waters, they’d determined to do that already… it was the obstacle to their determination – a test – to see how trusting they were of God and His Word.

We each have defining moments such as these… some are pointed out more clearly than others. Yet it is during those large moments, when we recognize them as Rubicons or Ahavas, that we make good on decisions we’ve already made… or we turn from the river and head back to where we came from.

Let us be steadfast in our walk in the Spirit and not make the mistakes we made in our youth of choosing unwisely. May God grant you His wisdom in all things.