Betwixt two worlds...

...and he pitched his tent: Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built and altar and he called on the name of the LORD. Story of Abram recorded in Genesis 12:8

Sometimes in life, most of the time in fact, we are called by God into something before we fully or even partially understand it. In Genesis 12 with the call of Abram, God scoops up a man in the middle of life and makes promises to him that seem too big for even God to dream up. To Abram's credit, he doesn't murmur or complain, he simple "goes out not knowing where he went" (Hebrews 11:8). When God says go, you don't have to know the plan, the route, and especially not the destination. You simply must know that you have heard the word of God and must adhere to what He has said. So many times in life we want to see the big picture and yet we want to know the details. The word of God will never send us into a place too big or minuet for the grace of God to not sustain us. God provided a high place (the mountain east of Bethel) for Abram to look around and see what was going on. Abram has the proper response: to offer sacrifice and worship God. He could have looked down upon the past or the future, but instead he chose to honor God with his present. Bethel will become a place of worship for generations to come and Ai will become the home of Abram's descendents worst defeat.
Did doubt slip into his mind as he stood offering the sacrifices? Perhaps the longing for Haran (Ur of Chaldees) and all that he had left behind in Mesopotamia? A wondering as to how God would accomplish His purpose in his future? No doubt it did. Abram was just a man after all. The key to his story and and history is that he did not allow the lack of evidence, the lack of witness, the lack of creeds or conventions to govern his response. He merely longed to go into the presence of God.
I hope we spend our new year entering God's presence even when we don't have all the answers. I hope we will go there when we don't fully understand or fully want to be understood. I hope that God will invade our lives and we will evade the desire to run from His advance.
God bless us as we stand between two worlds,
-Will