Ever had a song get stuck in your head? Sometimes it’s that tune that replays in your mind over and over until you find yourself absent-mindedly tapping the beat out on your knee. Or maybe it’s that blessedly annoying number 3 hit that sticks like gum to your brain.
For me, it’s this song I learned about five years ago when I was working at a youth camp in Kentucky. The song is more like an anthem, and it goes like this:
“Be Bold (BE BOLD)
Be Strong (Be STRONG)
For the LORD your God is with you.
Be Bold (BE BOLD)
Be Strong (BE STRONG)
For the LORD your God is with you.
I am not afraid,
I am not dismayed,
I’m walking in faith and victory
(COME ON)
Walking in Faith in Victory
For the LORD….
My GOD….
Is with Meeeeee.”
It’s a really short song, and without actually hearing it, you might wonder why it gets stuck in my head. When I worked at the youth camp, we had two weeks of Sunshine Camp, which was camp for only disabled campers and it was during Sunshine Camp that we would sing this song. A lot of our campers were mentally disabled, but that didn’t stop them from having(and creating for us staff) the most fun camp of the season. During our chapel time, two campers in particular would come up for praise and worship time and help lead. They would hold the microphones proudly and belt out the words to this song.
When it came time for the echoing part, one of the campers with a mic could only remember the “Be Bold” part, so each verse sounded something like this:
“Be Bold (BE BOLD!!!!)
Be Strong (Be BOLD!!!)
For the LORD your God is with you.
Be Bold (BE BOLD!!!)
Be Strong (BE BOLD!!!)
For the LORD your God is with you.”
Us staff workers would giggle at the one particular camper who would faithfully shout, “BE BOLD” every time. It wasn’t at all how the song should have went, but the gusto, the bravado, and the conviction this thirty-something-year-old camper had when he proclaimed this into the mic made the song so much better. And this is the version that sticks in my head.
I suppose it is simply hilarious, in a “you had to be there” type of way, but perhaps what catches my attention more is that this is the call God places on us all. In Joshua 1:9, God told Joshua to be strong and of good courage, for God would be with him wherever he went.
I don’t know if you’ve read the book of Joshua, but most of it was war. God was driving out the enemies of the Israelites through Joshua and his army. There are stories of great victory and miraculous happenings that Joshua was able to witness because he was obedient.
Before this verse, before Moses died, God had Moses send out a troop into the promised land, to spy out what they would inherit. The spies brought back some rich vegetation from the land and it was good, but their report was not that of peace. The land was filled with large men, enemies of God, and this presented impossible odds. Out of 12 spies, ten of them urged Moses that going into the promised land was a bad, scary, impossible idea.
Two men, however, Joshua and a man named Caleb, believed God when He said that He would give them the land. They weren’t afraid of what they’re eyes saw. They didn’t care that the odds seemed against them.
They were bold.
They were strong.
They believed that the LORD their God was with them.
In the same way, the sunshine campers who sang this song are like Joshua and Caleb. It didn’t matter that their mental handicap slurred their speech. They didn’t care that they were getting the words wrong. No thought went into whether or not they looked good up on the stage.
They were bold.
They were strong.
They knew that the LORD their God was with them.
There’s a lesson to be learned from all of this. See, my natural inclination is to be intimidated. My friends call me quiet. People label me sweet and gentle. In taking singing lessons, the bane of my existence is to be told, “open up, you sound timid and afraid.”
The reality is that I am saved by grace. I am covered in the blood of the lamb. My safety net is named Jesus and therefore, I can be bold. I can be strong.
I can do something crazy like getting vaccinations I can’t even pronounce so that I can go to third world countries and backpack for 11 months. I can raise 17 thousand-some-odd dollars when I have very little means. I can stand up straight and sing into a microphone. Want to know why?
Because the LORD my GOD is with me. He tells me I can do all things through Him who gives me strength. He tells me that He will never leave me or forsake me.
What about you? Are you struggling to rise and be bold? Is there something God is asking you to do that seems incredibly impossible? I encourage you in the same way the Sunshine Campers encourage me.
“Be Bold (BE BOLD!!!!)
Be Strong (Be BOLD!!!)
For the LORD your God is with you.”
It’s time friends.
It’s time to be bold.
It’s time to rise and roar.
For the LORD our God is with us.
