Journey Of Faith

A couple of days ago, I posed the question, "What the hell am I doing in Boise, Idaho?" At the beginning of that journey... this journey, really, I prayed to God for clarity and my direction was made clear. But now I wait.

I would hazard a guess that I have prayed to God more in the past month than I have in the past ten years. I ask for his guidance, I ask for his assistance, I ask for his peace. I wait for the answers and I search for clarity. I have become discouraged because I feel Him saying, "Patience. When the time is right, it shall be." I pray for patience but it is lost so easily.

This morning, I decided I needed to go to church. It seems superstitious but the last time I went, I received a call for an interview the following Wednesday. It was for this, and another reason, that I went.

You see, I believe in God. I believe that Jesus died for our sins, rose from the dead, and only through Him can we be saved - I have accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior. What I have trouble with is organized religion. Each and every religion believes they are right, the others are wrong, and "if you don't believe as we do, you will burn in hell."

Without going into a lot of detail, suffice it to say that I have been struggling with this lately and it has been included in my prayers. For me, the answer came as, "I know what is truly in your heart. The place you choose to worship does not matter, only that you set aside time for Me." So I went to church this morning, and I received a message.

The second reading this morning was Hebrews 11:1-19, part of which (versus 8-9) says, "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country..." When the Homily came around, the priest talked about these journeys of faith, perhaps, being smaller in scope but just as important. For me, it had literal meaning.

Not being familiar with the reference to Abraham's journey, I did something tonight I have never done before in my life. I got out my bible and went on a search for meaning. I eventually turned to the internet to speed up my search and found Genesis 12.

The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you."... So Abram left, as the LORD had told him...He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated..., and they set out for the land of Canaan....

And so it is for me. Through signs of clarity, the Lord said to me, "Leave your state, your people, and your home and go to the land I will show you." Just as Abraham, I left all that I knew for a land I had never seen and I did it all on faith.

Though I may become discouraged from time to time, I now understand that I must allow God to work His plan in His time and as long as I remain faithful, I shall receive the reward He has for me.