Where's the faith in that?

Following Spirit's Lead

“...[strive] to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition...”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

In Genesis 12, Yahweh tells Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your parent's house to the land that I will show you.” According to the record, Abram was already seventy-five years old, but he “went as Yahweh had told him.” Denying the call was not an option, even for an old man. I don't like hearing that.

Most of us really love the comforts of home, don't we? In fact we like the familiar even when it's not so comfortable. Who wants to pack up and move when they're old and infirm, or even more so, when they're very young. I remember what a difficult process it was to move my sons from the country back to the city. Even though we had been there for only three years; even though it was snake infested, isolated, and a difficult commute for school and work, it was home to them, and they didn't want to leave.

A friend of mine recently sold the house that she and her husband had lived in for forty years. After he died, her children wanted her to move into a retirement community where someone would be close-by in case she needed help. The people who bought her home planned to tear it down and build an enormous dwelling. That had to be a difficult decision for my friend. Sometimes we are called to do truly difficult things.

Yahweh promised Abram that he would become the father of a great nation—even though Abram was old and married to a barren woman. Most of us would have questioned that call, but not Abram. He trusted that whatever God promised, God would deliver.

Trusting Spirit to lead where we need to go is one of the greatest challenges of being human. Allowing our higher-self to direct us, even when the directions don't make sense to our ego-self, is what faith is all about. Like a benign parent, Spirit says, “It doesn't have to make sense to you. Just trust me.” We all have a calling. It may not make us comfortable, or popular, or wealthy. It may not change the world, but then again, who knows? It changed Abram's world. The question remains, do we have the faith to find out?

                                                                       In the Spirit,

                                                                          Jane