Genesis 12:1-9

Why did Abram have to go?  Why couldn’t God have blessed him, made him into a great nation, even blessed the whole world through him right where he was?

Because something necessary happens on the way.

As we head into this new week of our Into the Unknown series, we pick up this ancient story of an incredible journey.  Journey-stories are among our most ancient and basic stories: leaving the familiar, adventuring through unknown and uncharted territory, adventures exciting and scary all along the way, heading towards a distant destination that is somehow promised but not always seen.

An invisible particle has set us on a kind of journey.  We are leaving much that is familiar—work, schedules, school, social gatherings and everything else.  We are leaving our old sense of what matters, what’s important: maybe we have been living too frenetically?  Maybe we don’t need all the stuff we think we do?  Maybe there are other, better ways to live?

We need to leave because there are things God intends to work into us, say to us, give to us and do through us.  To do that, God needs to dislodge us from our current places.  Not because they are bad places, but because their comfortable familiarity makes it hard for us to really attend to the Lord.  Once we have to “hit the road” in some way, learning to hear God begins to matter in whole new ways.

Along the way, we learn new things about the Lord who calls us.  New muscles are exercised, new capacities are formed and developed, maturity ripens, wisdom deepens.

“Leave and go,” being dislodged, is hard!  But on the way is where—and how—we become the kind of people who are able to receive the “more” of God that God always has for us.  And to become the kind of people who are able to release God’s blessing, even to all the nations of the earth.

It’s what makes each and every God-journey worth taking.  Even if we stay in place!

What’s the journey God has called you onto in these days?  For most of us, it is not about physically relocating to a new house, or moving to a new community.  Maybe it’s a journey into prayer … or towards less materialism, less clutter and stuff … maybe a journey across the street towards a neighbor, known or not-yet-known … maybe a recalibration of our finances, our priorities, our commitments … maybe…?

What’s the journey God is calling you to?