God of the Journey
The God of Abraham - Part 1
Sunday, September 3, 2023
Genesis 12:1-9
The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your land, your family, and your father’s household for the land that I will show you.
Genesis 12:1
Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:
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5th grade was the worst year of my life.
I started school almost a month late in the oppressive Florida humidity among swarms of love-bugs (if you know, you know).
Apart from a few good years at the University of Florida and meeting McKenzie, Florida never really grew on me the way everyone said it would. It may have been flowing with sweat and mosquitos, but it was a far cry from milk and honey.
As I said, one of the few blessings was my time in Gainesville as a Florida Gator. I no sooner unloaded the car and said goodbye to my parents and I was off on my bike the rest of the week exploring a new campus, a new town, and the beginning of a new life. That week before classes I met a group of campus ministry students who opened my heart to a depth of faith and a passion for following Jesus that I had never seen in all my years of going to church. Little did I know then that this encounter would be just the beginning of my recognizing God’s call on my life.
So what does all this have to do with Abraham, let alone the God of Abraham?
Like both of the seasons above, Abraham’s story is the story of a journey into a new place, a new season, and a new life. I have had many such transitions and new seasons along my journey through life and ministry, probably more than most… from college to seminary to a doctoral program to training in Spiritual Direction… from Florida to Kentucky to North Carolina… from youth ministry to college ministry to pastoral ministry to retreat leadership… and the journey continues.
Unlike that first transition from Baltimore to Orlando in 5th grade, every other move was prompted by something bigger than myself that compelled me to step into the unknown. In 5th grade, I was told that my parents thought the neighborhood I had called home my entire life was no longer safe enough to raise my baby sister. In my opinion, almost 1,000 miles seems a bit much to flee from a changing neighborhood.
The God of Abraham is a God of the Journey, a God of transitions, a God who goes with us in every season of life. I could not see God in my transition to Florida because I wasn’t looking. I didn’t want to go. Looking back, I can see how God used every step toward something greater, even if they were not steps I would have taken willingly. I’m not saying God couldn’t have done great things had I stayed in Baltimore, or that somehow God made my parents move as some sort of grand plan for my life, but I can say that to my surprise, God showed up, even in Florida, in ways I could have never expected.
Just as my parents fled their neighborhood in Baltimore, I went to the University of Florida in large part to get away from home. What I didn’t know was that God had already gone ahead of me. God was already there. And God has already been present in every place and season since.
Sometimes we set our own path and we choose our own journey. Other times life takes us where we do not want to go. No matter how we got here or where we are going, the God of the journey has never left our side, and never will.