Going Where God Asks You to Go

 

I have always admired the mobility of God’s people in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible.

When I was a younger woman, I considered moving to Europe to pursue a career as an opera singer. I had visited several countries during my College years and had become enamored of, first, the way Europeans treated me as a Black woman, and second, the sheer number of opportunities open to a singer. This desire was heightened when, in the 1980s, I started traveling back and forth to Switzerland and France to perform concertized versions of Porgy and Bess and then other works for solo soprano, chorus, and instruments. I felt Europe calling me, but each time, I answered “No.” I was the primary contact for my mom. I purchased a house and began a career in higher education teaching. The timing never seemed right to pick up and leave. Time and again, I made excuses and ruled it out, even though the call was clear.

In Genesis 12:1-3, God tells Abram to leave his country and the house of his father for a land he will be shown. Like me, Abram has a family to whom he is responsible, work,  and possessions. Unlike me, Abram has no idea where he is going. Abram had God’s commandment to leave and to go. Abram also had God’s promise that he would be blessed as he obeyed God’s command to leave. Abram chooses to obey God and to go wherever God is sending him. He and Sarai went. The outcome of Abram’s obedience is that he became the father of three major world religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

We, as humans, like to see and know everything. We learn as disciples to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2Corinthians 5:7).  Walking by faith requires:

• The realization and acceptance that we are incapable of seeing and knowing everything.
• The belief that God knows and sees everything.
• A decision to trust that since God is omniscient, a
• Leaning on God’s promise to be with us and bless us as we obey: “My presence will go with you…” “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you.” (Ex. 33:14; Deut. 31:8)

The point I am making regarding Abram is that when God calls you, choose to obey, regardless of whether you can see the path clearly or know the destination. Go because obeying God can never be wrong.

 

I encourage you to pray that you will be better able to hear God's voice. Fear will say to you, “Stay, this can’t be good.” Because of this, I pray that you will ask God to steady your heart and help you override your human reactions to change so that you can experience the joy and blessing that come with following God’s commands.

 

Epilogue: After years of traveling to Europe, Asia, and Africa for my performance career, I decided to stay in the United States. I moved on from the dream of being an opera singer on a world stage to being something even better. The mobility I experienced was inside of me. Instead of requiring me to travel physically, God required of me a spiritual, mental, and emotional journey that led me to Fridley UMC. And for that, I will be forever grateful. Thanks be to God.

 

Walking in the Light

 

Weekly Devotion

1 John 1:5-7 (ESV)

 

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

 

John wrote three letters. In his first letter, believed to be written in Ephesus, he encourages those in faith with these words. God is light without darkness. I shared in the worship services a couple of weeks ago that light is not the absence of darkness, but it is, in fact, the other way around. Darkness is the absence of light. This is better understood when we remember the words from John’s Gospel. “ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). When light is present, darkness is pushed away. 

 

In physics, light is a combination of color bands that our eyes interpret. Perhaps then, the light we see as God is seen or interpreted by our spirits? This doesn’t mean that light doesn’t exist when we can’t see it, but it does mean that in order for us to walk in the light or to have fellowship with God, we must see and respond to the light. John answers the question “How?” in verse seven. The answer is simple and complicated, seeing or interpreting something as the light is only possible by walking in the light. 

 

Let’s explore walking from a human, physical perspective. Walking is considered to be a complex, coordinated, repeating sequence. Peter Tyson, of NOVA, writes in his article Our Improbable Ability to Walk, " that it is completely amazing that humans can walk upright. We only have two legs, and our center of gravity is high off the ground. Yet we can walk. Our ability requires coordination among multiple systems, including reflexive, voluntary, neural, muscular, and skeletal.

 

I believe there must also be spiritual coordination. Our spirituality is complex. It is impacted by our upbringing, hundreds of messages, our own desires, and sin. Because of all of these impacts, it takes a coordinated effort to walk in the light. This includes the following.

·      Renewing our mind (Romans 12:2). This means constantly realigning our thoughts and perspectives to God, exemplified by the life and words of  Jesus.

·      Daily asking for and receiving forgiveness (James 5:16).

 

Just as bodily walking requires effort until it becomes natural and can be done without thought, spiritual walking does as well. Remember the walking efforts of babies. It includes lots of falling down and getting back up. Sometimes it includes holding on to tables and the wall as supports to get back up. It includes crying and having someone around to wipe your eyes. 

 

In addition to the support from God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, you have your church family. Make an attempt to walk in all ways. When you fall, call on God in all of God’s fullness and the faith community. Set your eyes on the prize, which is, in John’s words, having fellowship (partnership for mutual benefit) with each other, cleansing from the  blood of Jesus, God’s Son.

 

Have a blessed week, conscious of the light of God and in your God-given power to walk in it. 

Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

Tyson, P. (2012, September 20). Our improbable ability to walk. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/our-ability-to-walk/