The Great Sojourner

The great sojourner heard the Lord say, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you..."  (Genesis 12:1)  There is no doubt that Abram, as he was known in this moment of calling, had a lot to lose.  Everything which spoke of the familiar, everything which spoke of his past, and everything around which he had built his life was now suddenly to be forsaken.  This word of calling seems to have come in a moment of loss and grief as previous verses record the death of Abram's father so it is likely that his life felt like one without a center.    

In such a moment the Lord who had been watching the life of Abram made Himself known in a way that took him away from all that could have been seen as the mooring of his life.  The call was to go to "the land that I will show you..."  There was nothing about it that was specific.  It was wide open, a journey without an ending.  There was a promise of blessing, but what is out there as a  possibility in the future must have been overshadowed by the reality of what fills the present moment.  Security filled the present moment and to do what the Lord was saying to do would empty his life of any sense of security.     

We know Abram's response.  "So Abram went, as the Lord told him..."   (Genesis 12:4)   The response seems so very straightforward and simple.  Perhaps, it was.  Perhaps, the call was something which spoke to what was growing in his heart.  No matter how we find ourselves seeing the moment of saying "Yes,' it was a moment of acting in faith.   When faith is embraced, it always requires abandonment, risking, and trusting God with both the big picture as well as the details of our life.  And, it also means living in the present without the knowledge of either.