Oct
04
2007
I Don't Know Where I'm Going, and Why That's Okay
Abraham obeyed God’s call to move to a different country, even though he didn’t know where he was going. Abraham puzzles me. How could the guy have enough faith to believe that God had called him to a land that wasn’t even specified? I mean, if I had been in Abraham’s shoes, I would have questioned my sanity and wondered if I hadn’t been spending too much time alone in the desert looking for the occasional cactus.
I’ve always wondered how Abraham knew that God had called him. Was it a voice from the sky? Was it an inner whisper? Was it a magnetic pull towards the Promised Land? Whatever it was, it must have made Abraham sure that God was calling him. How else can you justify moving from home to a foreign land, so foreign that you don’t even know what or where it is?
Abraham also makes me a little mad. After all, he totally upstages all the missionaries in history. Here he goes, off towards “he doesn’t know where,” in total faith in the One who has called him. Whatever can be said about the sacrifices of missionaries, usually, they knew where they were going. I have yet to hear missionaries get up in church and ask for financial support and not know what country God has called them to. I confess I probably wouldn’t reach too quickly into my wallet to fund someone without a destination or a plan.
There is one way I can relate to Abraham, though. Just like he didn’t know where he was going, when I moved to Romania, I didn’t know what was coming. Of course, I knew the country God had called me to. God had left no doubt in my mind. But I had no idea what that move would mean. It’s one thing to know a country’s earthly location and quite another to know what that location holds. I can know I’m heading for a jungle in Africa, without knowing what a jungle in Africa is like.
Sometimes I think that my coming to Romania was a similar experience. To me, it might as well have been a jungle.
Today, people ask me if we plan on moving back to Romania one day. Or if we plan on focusing on the ministry in the United States. Or if we have felt the call to go somewhere else. These are fair questions.
My answer? “I don’t know.” It sounds trite, but I say it anyway. “God hasn’t shown us yet.” A simple answer. I sometimes get strange looks from those who (I suppose) think we should have our future completely figured out by now. But I take comfort in knowing that in some small sense, I’m just doing what the faithful have done ever since Abraham left his country. One day at a time. Walking with our Lord. Seeing where he leads.
written by Trevin Wax © 2007 Kingdom People blog