By Chuck and Chad 

You have life all figured. You've paid off the mortgage on your home early and the children have been sent off to college. You're preparing for a nice retirement that involves a lot of hours with a line in the water. It's all there, your future, laid out in front of you in a neat little row. Then, God comes. He comes and he says, "Leave your home, your family, and all your plans behind and go. I'll show you where when we get there." It happened to Abraham (Gen 12:1) and it could very well happen to you or I-the Divine Intruding on our calm, planned lives.

I (Chuck) was that way for a long time when it came to the small Louisiana community that I lived in for much of my teenage years and young adulthood. I couldn't dream of life away from the bayous and the high school football atmosphere that northeast Louisiana had to offer. I

thought that the days and nights on the lake and the Darbonne' Bayou could never be the past; it was the now and my future.

I wonder if Abram was like that. There he was with his wife Sarai in Haran (modern day Turkey) and a lifetime of memories. They had grown accustomed to everyday life in that place. Abram was seventy-five years old and suddenly God told him to go. How many good nights did he and Sarai have together there? It would soon be a memory: the local family, the friends that came over for dinner, all of it. All of it for the promise of some mystery place that God said, "I will show you." I wonder

if there were thoughts of staying? There are none recorded but I have to

wonder if this wealthy couple of Haran thought of staying so they could live the "good life". The comfort zone was to be cast aside and a life of simply following the Lord awaited.

The journey Abram would have to make would be a hard one. But, sometimes

that's what's asked of us by God. Sometimes we have to leave the comfort

of our well-planned lives to serve Him. Sometimes we've got to drop our nets and go. So, what's it going to be? Is your life more than the sum of your plans? Do you believe God has a greater purpose for you?

Gen 12:5 (ASV) "And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went..."