Calling

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.

Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.

Genesis 11:31-32

I once heard a pastor mention these two verses in a sermon about the call of God on our lives. You may be wondering how these verses could make any point at all, they seem rather insignificant. 

The pastor suppposed that the call that Abram received to leave his homeland and family (a few verses later) could have possibly been a call given to his father, which his father didn't carry out.

According to these verses Terah and his family were from Ur and at some point they packed up and left on a journey towards Canaan, the place that God would later promise to give to Abram. Why would Terah uproot his family to go to an unknown land? Is it possible that before calling Abram God first called his father?

Let's suppose that God did call Terah to go and he went. Well, what happened? On their journey they traveled through Haran and settled there. They didn't make it to Canaan and Terah died there.

Sometimes God calls us to something specific. We hear the call and head out on a grand adventure, just like Terah. Along the way we may make a few stops. Some of these stops are awful comfortable. We begin to reason that traveling on the road is dangerous and really no place for a family and we forget the original call. Before we know it, we have settled in a real comfortable place and have an enjoyable life but have neglected the call of God.

God's call isn't always comfortable or easy. Jesus says that broad is the way that leads to destruction and narrow is the way that leads to life. More often than not, God's call travels on a narrow path. It is not a path that the world would choose, only someone who truly believes and trusts in God knowing that the end result will be worth the present lack.

May we strive to live our lives following God all the way to the finish; not letting worries, wealth, comfort or desires of the world deceive us thus keeping us from experiencing God himself and the fruition of His plan.