Genesis 12: A Leap of Faith
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Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; and I will make your name great.

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After scanning centuries, Genesis changes dramatically in chapter 12. Leaving the big picture of world history, it settles on one lonely individual- not a great king or a wealthy landowner, but a childless nomad, Abraham. At God's call, Abraham uprooted himself and began wandering in the wilderness- moving his flocks from place to the next, negotiating with hostile locals, and searching for sources of food and water.

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What made this particular wanderer so important/ unique?

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God chose him as the foundation of a new humanity. The promises that God made to Abraham were hard to believe: his wife was barren, he was getting too old to have children, and he owned no land. Nonetheless, God asked Abraham to simply trust Him.

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Secondly, when God spoke to him, Abraham listened. He was far from perfect, sometimes straying from the path that God put him on, lying and trying to make the promises work out in his own way. Yet, in the decisive moments of life, he listened to God and obeyed. He was willing to sacrifice anything for God- even his own son (Genesis 22) With this trust, Abraham's descendants were to be foreever known as "God's people" and set in motion the story of God's long range plans... Look up at the heavens and count the stars- if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be. (Genesis 15:5)

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Life Question: God asked Abraham to leave his home, family, and friends and go to a far off foreign country. Has God ever asked anything hard or risky of you? How did you respond?

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I think God has probably called upon me numerous times, but I'm not so sure if I've always responded with the same "leap of faith" as Abraham. Sometimes, it takes a while- days, or even weeks, to realize missed opportunities in which I could have made a difference in someone's life- usually at God's beckoning- but found it to be either inconvienient or simply unimportant at the time: reaching out to a friend in need, truly listening to my spouse/ kids and giving them my undivided attention at times, doing more financially for those who have so little in life...yeah, I'm pretty much guilty of all of the above. This story can truly be a source of inspiration for folks like me who need to wake up and start listening to what God is calling me to do.