Focus

June 4, 2023

“Give me THIS mountain!” So said Caleb to Joshua when the Promised Land had finally been conquered. Forty-five years earlier, Caleb and Joshua were the only two spies who brought back a favorable report about the land God was giving them. The others saw the problems, the obstacles; these two saw through all that to the opportunities. 

It was (and still is) a matter of perspective. We see life not in terms of what is “out there,” but what is “in here,” in our hearts. The others saw themselves as “grasshoppers before giants” (Numbers 13:33). Joshua and Caleb saw that the inhabitants’ protection was gone (Numbers 14:9).. Caleb revealed the reason for the difference: “I brought back word as was in my heart” (Joshua 14:7). What was inside him was more important than what was around him.

His dream was delayed 45 years because of other peoples’ unbelief. Through all the years of wandering, he kept that dream fresh in his heart. Instead of nurturing bitterness against them, for Caleb, the wait just sharpened his thirst. 

It did something else, too. Forty five years earlier, Caleb just wanted to get into the Promised Land—a pretty generic goal. The forty years of waiting coupled with five years of conquest had sharpened his focus to a single place: “Give me THIS mountain!” Sometimes it takes a protracted struggle to know what you really want to get from God. The challenge is God’s way of cutting through all the distractions and disorienting fog of this world so we can see more clearly the goal to which God is calling us.

I’m close to Caleb’s age. I’ve been going to my Promised Land of Cuba for nearly fifteen years, but my mountain is coming into focus, and I’m saying to God, “Give me THIS mountain!”