Courage and strength.  Courage and strength... I remember this anthem from the beginnings of the Book of Joshua -- but I never really realized that these refrains were being instilled all the way back at the beginning of Deuteronomy as well.  God must have known that these would need to be important armaments for the people of Israel (and particularly the leader of the people of Israel), as they set out on their great campaign to claim the Promised Land.

Courage and strength.  Courage and strength.  In Deuteronomy chapter 1, Moses is told to build up Joshua's courage, in light of the fact that it would be he who would claim Israel's inheritance (Deuteronomy 1:37-40).  In chapter 3, soon after reminding Moses that a glimpse from the top of Mount Pisgah would be the closest that he'd ever get to the Promised Land, God commands Moses to command Joshua:  "Give him courage.  Give him strength.  Single-handed he will lead this people across the river.  Single-handed he'll cause them to inherit the land at which you can only look" (Deuteronomy 3:28).

Courage and strength.  Courage and strength.  It's so necessary for leadership.  It's so necessary for life.  The reiteration of these themes -- summed up in Joshua's "inaugural address" and its repeated charge to "Be strong and courageous" -- has been a powerful encouragement to me throughout the years.  I remember reading the first chapter of Joshua just after I had initially made the decision to go into full-time ministry.  I was facing the intimidating process of raising funds to cover the costs of my ministry in Bowling Green -- and those words from Joshua were life and hope and power to my weak and trembling body.  Courage!  Strength!  I felt empowered by those reminders, and incredibly, God showed up in those days of fund-raising -- enabling a gangly, green, college-graduate to complete the process in about five months.

The encouragements toward courage and strength again came into play some four years later, as I was preparing to move to Amsterdam.  The Atlantic Ocean felt like such a wide and impossible barrier (probably because it was, on the practical level!) -- but then, again "coincidentally" reading through the stories of Joshua's conquest of the Promised Land, I was freshly reminded of God's miraculous interventions to help His people cross the Jordan River (which was, to the Israelites, just as impossible a barrier as my Atlantic Ocean).  Courage and strength!  Courage and strength!  I felt my blood pump faster and more fully through my veins, as I read those words.  Eating up those words from the first chapter of Joshua was like Pacman munching on a power pellet, or Popeye popping a can of spinach, or the Gummi Bears gulping a vial of Gummi Berry Juice.  Somehow, reading the command to be strong and courageous actually made me stronger.  I actually became more courageous.  And then God showed up again, and the Mission Impossible suddenly became the Mission Accomplished.  We raised another boat-load of support.  We sold our house.  We crossed the Atlantic, quite literally, and settled down in the city of Amsterdam.  Again, God supplied all the courage and strength that I needed -- along with all the other more practical stuff to boot.

And now I find myself reading through the Conquest accounts of the Old Testament again -- and as I read the reminders toward courage and strength (in places from the text where I never really noticed them before), I again feel my adrenaline pumping stronger, the timpanic drum beat growing louder, the courage and strength filling my system anew.  The feeling is not unlike my memory of rides on a big yellow school bus, on my way to a high school football game in Norwalk or Bellevue or Upper Sandusky, listening to "pump-up" music on my walkman headphones.  I feel like I'm on the cusp of a great, epic battle.  I'm getting prepared.  I'm ramping up.  I'm rip-raring to go, like a race-horse at the gates.

Could it be mere coincidence that these passages from the Bible are speaking so strongly to me again at just the time when I'm getting ready for another significant stretch of support-raising in the USA?!?  I did not plan my personal Bible study with the current situation in mind -- but it's crazy how such words of encouragement supernaturally fill me for just such a time as this!  Courage and strength!  Courage and strength!  And just when I need it...

I especially appreciate the fact that I'm noticing these anthems further back in the text than what I've previously observed.  Joshua was repeatedly steeped in words of strength and encouragement, apparently, going back years before the First Battle of Canaan ever took place.  That means that it wasn't just some blind rush of psychosomatic chemical responses to an impassioned speech at a particular moment of crisis.  It wasn't some special, one-time, "unique" experience of God's courage and strength.  It was, doubtless, a mix of God's supernatural voice, the encouragement of others, and self-talk reinforcing an acquired belief.  But if anything, this makes the message of courage and strength even more meaningful!  It's something sustained and and repeatedly spoken into cognizance.  It's something that can charge us now, and something that can stay with us into the future.

As long as we remember -- and remind each other -- to be strong and courageous.