What Abram is leaving behind is defined, clearly and repeatedly: ‘Go from your country and from your family and from your home’ (Gen 12:1, my translation)—leave, in short, all that is familiar. But as for where he is going, God says only that it is ‘the land that I will show you.’ Abram sets out for—wherever. He and Sarah are given no map, no specific heading. Instead, they are required to be open to God’s direction and guidance all along the way.”

God does not say, “Go to such and such a place,” and give Abram a clear destination, but “Pick up and leave everything and trust me to help you find the place I want you to be.” I’ll be talking more about this passage on Sunday, and don’t want to give away everything now, but for now I’d like to invite you to consider what it means to leave everything in the hope of some as yet unknown destination. What an exercise in trust that was. What might inspire Abram to make that trip, given how little he knew?

And in the meantime, if you’d like to read Dr. Tuell’s blog, you can find it here: https://steventuell.net/all-along-the-way/?fbclid=IwAR28U-8FeSI9uxOuPRaqQAyW5AQIyv9ffmBJrhhpHX4CAoDGJrDyZD-p1Ko.

I’ll see you in church—

Becky

Prayer

Lord, we find it so difficult to trust.

We’d really like to know ahead of time what we’re looking at

and where we’ll land,

and that things will turn out how we want them to be.

You don’t always give us that,

and we find that difficult. Frustrating. Even upsetting.

Help us to trust you. Help us to take those first uncertain steps.

Help us to continue to listen for your guidance

and to seek your ways

even as we move forward, trying to find your path.

Whether it be in our church, or in our homes,

or even in our own bodies,

Teach us to make our way through life

knowing that you are the best and perfect goal,

And help us to keep everything else in right perspective.

Amen.