Abraham is one of my spiritual journey heroes. His journey of faith resonates with me because it seems real. It seems authentic. It seems like the kind of spiritual journey that struggles with real life. I think some folks try to have two different lives - their "spiritual lives" and their "real life". Their "spiriual life" then becomes and escape from their "real life" and ends up having no connection with how they live, where they go, what they do, and how they grow. Abraham's faith struggles with real life on a daily basis. He leaves the comfort and security of his familiar surroundings. He has to deal with strife in his family. He gets nervous at times and wonders if God's promises will actually pan out. He doesnt understand how God is going to keep His promise because it involves he and his wife having a baby in their "retirement" years. But through all of this Abraham keeps searching, keeps hoping, keeps expecting, keeps anticipating. His faith seems real.
I want to live a spiritual journey in which my faith keeps me hoping, expecting, anticipating, dreaming, and moving foward even thought the obstacles look formidable and challenging. I want an experience of God that seems real and authentic and connected with daily life - not something that feels like an "add on" because it's the respectful thing to do. Immersing myself in Abraham's life and journey is helping me to that. I'm not there yet...but I feel I have someone I can look and show me how it's done - that being Abraham.
Eugene Peterson defines faith in this way, "...'faith' - trusting obediently in what we cannot control, living in obedient relationship to the One we cannot see, venturing obediently into a land that we know nothing about." For me, the operative term here seems to be that of "obedience." To live this life of faith is to give up my need to control and to follow in holy obedience the promptings and leadings of God. Quakers have always sought to do this - to listen for the living voice of God and follow wherever that Voice calls us to go. Abraham did. So can we.
I pray my life can be described as one in which I am trusting obediently, living obediently, and venturing obediently. I also pray that we as Deep River Friends can be a faith community that trusts obediently, lives obediently, and ventures obediently. We are on a journey together - a journey that takes a lifetime. In that journey we can individually listen to God as well as corporately listen to God. It's tempting to want to make decisions purely from a rational level but what is easy to forget is that God is speaking to us at a deeper level - the level of our heart and soul. When we hear what God is saying, we bring it to the faith community and we share our leadings with one another. In that way, we take this journey of faith together.
Blessings,
Scott
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