Abandonment

Abraham is the spiritual prototype for any soul traveling from here to there, any pilgrim who sets out from the land of the familiar, and any one who understands the spiritual life as a journey to "know not where."  When this ancient Hebrew patriarch heard the call of God, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you..."  (Genesis 12:1), he did not ask "Where is this land?" or "Tell me more."  Instead he simply laid it all down and went.  No questions.  No reservations.  In that moment of going, he modeled what it means to be abandoned to God.     

Abandonment is a word that gets thrown around a lot by the spiritual seekers.  Perhaps, it is more the language of the past than an expression of the current vernacular, but it is a powerful word for any who hear the call of God and seek to live after it.  What is easy is to count the visible and obvious things as the things being abandoned for God.  Giving up a bad habit or two may be more an act of self improvement than an act that has overtones of abandonment for God.    

The truth is most of us would rather abandon for God the things we can see rather than the ungodly things which lurk in our hearts.  Are we ready to abandon any right to carry a grudge?  Are we prepared to abandon our personal pleasure in passing judgement upon others?  Are we ready to abandon an ego that is always right?  Is there some part of us, some attitude, some thought toward another person that we are not yet ready to lay down?  As we go to the inner places where such issues and questions must be pondered, we enter into the realm where the hard work of abandonment for God is done.  It is a place and a work many of us would rather avoid.