“Now the LORD said to Abram: Go forth from your country, and from your
relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you;
And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, And make your name
great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And
the one who curses you I will curse. And
all clans on earth will bless themselves by you.” --Genesis 12:1-3
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When the
Lord sends Abram to a far country, away from his relatives and his father’s
house, we might be tempted to simply accept it as part of the narrative –a plot
device so to speak. We might not question it, or contemplate it because it
feels like the introduction to a story; it feels like a “once upon a time”
moment. We are so familiar with the rest
of this story, the covenant drama with the split animal bodies, the many
conversations with God, the name changes (Abram to Abraham; Sarai to Sarah),
the heavenly visitors who prophecy Sarah’s pregnancy, the bargaining with God
and especially the sacrifice of Isaac, that this opening detail can easily get
glossed over in our rush to get to the action. But reading this passage the
other morning, especially after reading Romans, I was struck by the weirdness
of it. Am I crazy? Quite possibly. But, bear with me as I chase this idea once
more around the bend.
Here’s
what I heard in my heart when I read this: God called Abram to leave the place
he knew, his homeland, and leave the place where he felt secure, his father’s
house, and to go to a place that God would show him –a place Abram didn’t know
and where he would have no standing. Go there. Go to this foreign land where
you will be vulnerable and quite literally out of your comfort zone, and by
doing this you will become a blessing for all people. What does that vision say to my life? What
does it say to the world today?
The first
thing that occurred to me was: I need to go where God calls regardless of how
comfortable or safe it seems. Because where God calls us to go will often be
somewhere unfamiliar and challenging, but it will most assuredly be a place of
vulnerability. Isn’t that confirmed in
Jesus? To be a witness for God, is to be vulnerable, to place ourselves in the
hands of others –that we might become a blessing for them. Notice that God tells Abram that those who
bless him will be blessed and that those who curse him will be cursed. That
sure sounds like God telling him, telling US, that some people will accept us
and bless us and others will curse us. And notice that God doesn’t give any
directives as to how Abram should react to either. In light of recently reading
Romans, I still had these words of Paul’s echoing in my head:
“None
of us lives for himself and none of us dies for himself. While we are alive we
live for the Lord, and when we die, we die for the Lord…” (cf. Romans 14:7-8)
And with
that thought still in mind, I saw in God’s call to Abram a call to all
Christians to leave their comfort and their security and to go forth to an
unfamiliar place where you can become a blessing to those who bless you. It isn’t our business to judge the people who
curse or bless us, it is only our business to get off the couch and go out to
the world where we will be vulnerable, where God will give us the opportunity
to serve Him in the people we meet, the people who bless or curse us, the
people who simply reach out to us in need of help, a friend, food, or a
consoling hand. And I think somehow in God's algebra of grace, being vulnerable is an essential part of the equation; it is essential to becoming a blessing. Eegads! Contemplate that the next time you feel insecure.
If you
turn off your TV or shut off your phone (or computer) for a while you may hear
a voice calling you, a voice calling from deep inside of you, calling you to
get up off the couch and go outside –out of your comfort zone, out of your
familiar places—go somewhere and just be vulnerable. Go somewhere that you
might not normally go. Is that to the hospital to volunteer? Perhaps. Or to a
soup kitchen? Maybe. Quite possibly it starts with simply telling someone after
mass how much you liked their singing. Ask yourself this: Does it make you feel
uncomfortable? Vulnerable? Then quite probably that is where you are being
called to go.
NEXT—that other thing this reading brought to mind.
Re Mike Reynauld's comment, if He tells you, Go, you go, if He tells you, Stay, you stay: Sometimes it might be a great deal more painful to stay where you are, than to go somewhere else and start over. I think this must be the path I am on (re my work, for example).
ReplyDeleteI am struggling too. I think sometimes the "foreign land" may be a new stage in a friendship, or work relationship, life, marriage, etc. It is somewhere (perhaps anywhere) that we feel vulnerable and insecure. I am going through that with work and life. Loss of my ministry calling, confusion about where to go or what to do with my writing. Loneliness in my personal life, and anxiety about my children, family, etc. I don't think this is just about moving to Waxahachie, or Nova Scotia or the Mojave desert. It's about being vulnerable and learning to put our trust in God instead of our own energies and powers.
DeleteYeah, hard to keep going when you keep praying for that person who doesn't like you, and the only "changes of heart" you seem to encounter are really, really short and very rare. (I'm tired of this! I want to quit!!!!)
DeletePam
DeleteI am right there with you. Praying for patience, praying for a lighter heart, praying for hope... for renewal... praying to be healed or to be made more vulnerable... but in need of strength and some sign to help me keep going.