“Where are we going?” “What are we going to do?” “When are we going to stop?” These are all questions my children have asked me when we have been preparing to travel or we are on the road to a destination. Each of these questions has validity and when not answered to their sufficiency, the intensity of the questions becomes deafening. I must admit I have become impatient with the ongoing questions, telling them, “Just trust me.”
In Genesis 12:1-2 we read, “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.’” The uncertainty of the geographic destination was to be accepted as “the place where I will show you.” The absence of the safety net of family and comfort of one’s own culture was to be accepted in the knowledge of God’s blessing. The Lord was calling Abram to the adventure of following the Lord to sites unknown and trusting the Lord to provide for each of his family’s needs as they traveled.
Jesus picks up on a similar calling to his disciples when he calls them to “deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me” and when he sends them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God. Though the Lord may not have called us to make a geographic change from one location to another area of the state or the world, the Lord does call for us to trust Him when He calls us to places and people with whom we had not previously interacted. Whether it is the homeless, the poor, the needy, the addict, the prosperous, the athlete, the politician, etc., the Lord calls us out of our comfort. Our problem is threefold:
When the Lord is calling us, He does not call us to go somewhere He has not already been. He is not calling us to go alone. The Lord shows us each step along the way and walks those steps with us. When we leave behind our comfort to follow the Lord, we soon find out with each step, that there are many blessings.
Is the Lord calling you out of your comfort to new experiences? Are you willing to leave behind the comfortable to enter the blessing? Are you willing to trust the Lord for each step of the way toward the destination?
Prayer: Lord, I confess I like my comfort and I like to know where I am headed when I take out on a trip. Forgive me for the times I have not trusted you when you have called me out of my comfort. I want to experience the blessing of obedience and see how your plan is so much greater than my plan. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.