When the mountain gets steep

Often, I have envisioned Abraham's call of God into the land which the Lord promised him with similar imagery to the great Oklahoma land rush -- standing at the border with the promise in hand, waiting for the sound to take what is uncharted and undeveloped but ripe with potential. The Bible often reminds me of how my ideas do not align with what has been revealed.

The Bible says about the land promised to Abraham, "At that time Canaanites were in the land," (Gen 12:6). In his book "As Kingfishers Catch Fire" Eugene Peterson writes, "[The land] wasn't frontier. It wasn't virgin territory waiting for a new way of life to be created on it. It was already full of bustling city-states, thriving places of worship [and] trade agreements." More complex than ideal.

Often, we expect God's will to be clear and easy. After all, if God closes a door, he opens a window. Both are blessings of a thriving life of comfort and purpose. That has never been the case. There have been numerous crises of faith stemmed from ordinary, everyday struggle.

Struggle, however, does not mean the absence of God any more than ease means you are in his will. The struggle you are in may reveal you are where God wants you to be.

Struggle activates faith by pushing you past where you are comfortable. Abraham left not only his home but the home of his father and his father before him. Generations of living in the same place, going to the same market, walking the same streets were left in faith. A life of faithful obedience will often press you past where you are comfortable and with whom you are comfortable to know the Lord who gives compassion to all.

The struggle also presses us to trust God, who is leading instead of the surrounding circumstances. Surrounded by the beauty of the mountain top or in the cool valley, it is easy to conclude God is here. But when the mountain gets steep and the valley is deep, it causes you to say enough. Struggle takes us in faith past what we see to whom we cannot see -- trusting in the Creator, not the circumstances.

Abraham, full of faith, entered into God's promises experiencing struggle, strife and revealing his sinful flaws. God's will may be perfect, but it is never easy.