Day 280: It's All Holy Ground

This is a Mastercard ad on a beach in South America, which like all Mastercard ads talks about enjoying life and how you can do it without even using your handy charge card. It relates to today's post. So keep reading. Thanks Canadian Nancy - I miss you!



Today, at the younger university church I sometimes go to, the Australian pastor spoke. I like it when he speaks, because everything is more meaningful due to his accent. Which I say is Australian, but could of course be Irish or Scottish or something not even remotely similar.

So the perhaps-Australian pastor was talking about Joshua, who was this sort of anxious chap in the Bible who was trying to be as amazing as Moses. Moses had already died at this point, so it was all up to Joshua, and Joshua was stressed out and he was having a whole book in the Bible named after him (although he didn’t know about that part yet) and it was overwhelming. The perhaps-Australian pastor helped me to understand this inferiority complex by likening Joshua to Matt LeBlanc on Joey, who had to carry the weight of Friends success even though he knew he was clearly not as impressive without Jennifer, Courtney, Matthew and everyone else.

Anyway, Joshua is freaking out because he is supposed to be God’s chosen person and tear down the walls of Jericho. The specific reason why Jericho needs breaking down is unclear, but just bear with me. And Joshua is a head case. So he’s busy pacing, in an agitated manner, when this person with a sword comes up. Now, because Joshua is stressed, he does not assume the best and semi blows up at the guy, shouting (psych 101: anger is fear unmasked) about is the guy there for him or against him and blah blah blah.

And the guy with the sword, who was a good guy, gets exasperated with all-in-my-head Joshua. Very calmly, he says to Joshua that not everything is about Joshua and Joshua’s problems and if someone is going to help or hurt Joshua or not. Then, he says something really powerful, and goes: “Remove the sandals from your feet; the ground where you stand is holy.” Which basically means that Joshua is being an idiot and not realizing that in this very second, when he is stupidly pacing, he is living a sweet moment. And if he just stopped worrying about Jericho and all his little problems he’d be okay.*

It was a common message, but a good one, and one that surely spoke to many people in church today. Including the guy sitting next to me, who my freakishly accurate memory told me was the older brother of my one-time summer camp counselor from 1996. He’s grown up a bit since then, but I suppose we all have. Not enough to not lose our car after church, though, and have the ex-camp counselor's older brother find you walking up and down the same dark street in your attempts to find it, all the while still trying to prove you're not still 14 like you were in 1996. But that's another story about how people can be nice to you when you do idiotic things. And I have to go to bed.

*Now, if you know television, you know that Joey failed. Specifically, Joey failed, Matt LeBlanc and his wife divorced, and it was discovered that one of the main reasons for said divorce was Matt’s new relationship with the blond neighbor girl on Joey. I’m not sure what this says about Jericho, and what happened there, but I’m sure you could look that it up.