Return to Egypt or Enter the Promised Land

"And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure." (Num. 14:33-34)

Wandering 40 years in the wilderness was the result of the Israelites failure to trust what the Lord was doing by leading them into the Promised Land.  The people thought it would have been better to have died in Egypt in slavery or in the wilderness than to face the inhabitants of the land that the Lord wanted to give them with promised victory.

The Lord has done and continues to do great things for us, yet do we fail to trust what he is doing or where he is taking us today?  It is easy to dismiss this question, and that is why I am taking it up right now.

Recently I heard a wonderful priest say that being a Christian is a decision you have to make today.  And tomorrow.  And the next day.  If Christ is the Promised Land like the Church teaches us, then not choosing to enter into being a Christian each day (not entering the Promised Land) is a decision to remain in our old ways (the desert) or return to Egypt (slavery to sin).

I would like to propose a perhaps uncomfortable idea (for me as well).  That is that the comforts and distractions of modern life can often hinder us from choosing for the more difficult task of being disciples of Christ each day. In this way, many of the luxuries so many of us are used to can actually start to fill the role of Egypt in our lives.  And as much as we may have come to see our daily comforts as little harm to our trust in the Lord, we must never cease to hold them in the light of our daily call to abide in the presence of our Lord.  Entering the Promised Land isn't just something we are striving for down the road, but a reality we are called to this vary moment.  Let us not become content with our comforts or luxuries but always strive to trust the Lord for what he holds for us today as his disciples in the Promised Land.