Genesis 12:1. “Now the LORD said to Abram,
‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.’”
Many hear God’s call to Abram as a call to a new place. I wonder if that’s also how we listen for God’s calling in our own lives.
What is my destination? How do I get there? To where is God calling me?
Maybe we are starting with the wrong questions. Read the verse from Genesis again. God focuses on what Abram must leave behind—country, kindred, his father’s house.
These things Abram leaves behind are more than just tangible items, geographical locations, and relationships. Ultimately, they form Abram’s identity, security, and place in community—they are the concrete things he knows about life, about himself, and about the world. God will now be the giver and provider of context and content for Abram’s life.
Every journey whether physical, emotional, or spiritual begins with leaving something behind. Maybe the reason we feel like we never get anywhere new in life is because we are unwilling to leave anything, much less everything, behind.
*Originally written for and published by Forward Day by Day.
