The Promised Land

This blog post has been stirring in my head and heart for the past several weeks In fact, it is the very thought that inspired me to start writing again.  But then self-doubt snuck in.  Should I share it?  Should I not share it?  What will people think?  Does anyone read the blog anyhow?  Why does it matter what people think?  Lots of self-doubt and inner talk (sometimes inner argument) but in the end I just think if I don't share this, I am not truly living gallantly, so here goes nothing.

In the Bible, the Promised Land was the land promised to the Israelites when they left Egypt and the oppression that they had suffered at the hand of the Egyptians for some 400 years.  They left the only home that any of them had known and followed Moses through the desert to their promise of a "land flowing with milk and honey" (Exodus 3:8 if you want to read the account).  I've always been a little confused by that particular statement so I did a little research and found “milk and honey” refers to the nectar of the fruit, and a land “flowing with milk and honey” is an expression used for a particularly fertile land that could produce abundant and juicy fruit.

So with this promise, the Israelites followed Moses through the Red Sea, past Mount Sinai (think Ten Commandments), and a bunch of other drama.  Years later, the Israelites finally make it near the Promised Land and Moses sends spies to survey the situation and when the spies return from their spying activities, they affirm that “it is also flowing with milk and honey and here are its fruit, however, the people who dwell in the land are fierce” (Numbers 15:27, 28).  They talk of giants and impossibility.

But see, that's the thing about the Promised Land, yes, there were obstacles, but it was, also, promised.  Long story a little shorter, only 2 spies remind Moses of the promise and try to encourage the Israelites that God's promise is God's promise, God makes the Israelites wander the desert until the generation dies off due to their lack of trust, Moses disobeys God when they are wandering in the desert without water, and Moses doesn't even get to enter rather has to look at the promise from afar and wonder what could have been due to that disobedience.

Nice story, right? But here is something that I had never considered, we all have our own Promised Land.  Some people call it their destiny or calling or whatever but in reality it is just the promise that is in store for our life.  Several weeks ago, our pastor asked the question, what is your Promised Land?  Hmmmmm .... that's a very good question and one that I'm not entirely sure that I know the answer to. 

What I do know is this, I don't just want to see my Promised Land from afar and wonder what it would have been like as Moses had to do nor do I want to be like the spies who were too afraid of the obstacles so they never got to experience the fulfillment of the promise.  I want to my Promised Land, whatever that might be.