At the front of my planner for 2017, I have included a poem I just discovered.
Becoming
Once or twice in a lifetime
a man or a woman may choose
a radical leaving, having heard
Lech L'cha--Go forth.
God disturbs toward our destiny
by hard events
and by freedom's now urgent voice
which explode and confirm who we are.
We don't like leaving,
but God loves becoming.
- Rabbi Norman Hirsch, God Loves Becoming
Lech L’cha are the 5th and 6th words in the Hebrew text of Genesis 12:1, “YHWH said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country and from your kindred and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.’” After setting out, Abram received a new identity as "Abraham" in Genesis 17:5.
As I look back at 2016 and peer forward into 2017, it seems that a good life is really about becoming with God’s direction and power. Living well is about going forth, instead of shrinking back.
Change is difficult. We don't like leaving a familiar life. Research has shown that people tend to overestimate the value of what they have and underestimate the benefits that a change would bring. This is even more likely for people who are successful, who have acquired satisfying relationships, significance, and prosperity through diligent effort. Why should all those assets, achieved through years of labor, be set aside for a risk? Yet God knows we need to move forward in faith, in order to be fully alive and to become like him.
Sometimes, he helps us by hard events.
For me, becoming has meant
leaving a familiar life behind, taking chances, being a beginner again, and moving
outside my comfort zone. This has been hard to do. My success makes it even harder to continue. For me, going forth and becoming are more challenging with every additional year, because I think it will cost me more. Each year, staying where I am, and enjoying the benefits of what I have already done, looks more appealing. The only thing which pushes me onward is the unsettling conviction that God is calling me to go a bit further. Over the last seven years, I have learned that my rising personal cost yields a rising personal wealth—the kind of wealth which God gives to all who go forth with him. This wealth is an accrued ability to influence other lives.
In my going forth, I have uncovered a dynamic principle: God’s power for changed lives through me corresponds to the degree of personal change he has worked in me.
Rewards for going forth multiply with age, as they did for Abraham, who chose to go to a place he had never seen, with inspiring results for himself and for generations. In God's eternal economy, radical obedience produces multiplied benefits for mature sojourners and for others within their spheres of influence—some of these benefits are quite surprising. But most of us hesitate to leave what we have, because we are unable to calculate the benefits of radical change, of going forth with God to something entirely new. How can we solve this dilemma? First, we need to be honest about our blindness and ask for God's help with managing ourselves. Next, we need to choose carefully with proper motives. Finally, we need to take action and rely on God's goodness.
When we are called to a radical leaving---we can change the world with our "yes." Even if we have no idea what God is doing, we can be assured that he will not waste our obedience. Even when our performance in a new arena disappoints us, he can work wonders. Because he is always with us, we do not travel alone. Because he is with us, we display his wisdom, power, and redemption, as our years rise to a crescendo, climaxing in heavenly glory. Our stories can be life-giving to generations who need to see that God exists and that he rewards those who trust him.
Becoming
Once or twice in a lifetime
a man or a woman may choose
a radical leaving, having heard
Lech L'cha--Go forth.
God disturbs toward our destiny
by hard events
and by freedom's now urgent voice
which explode and confirm who we are.
We don't like leaving,
but God loves becoming.
- Rabbi Norman Hirsch, God Loves Becoming
Lech L’cha are the 5th and 6th words in the Hebrew text of Genesis 12:1, “YHWH said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country and from your kindred and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.’” After setting out, Abram received a new identity as "Abraham" in Genesis 17:5.
As I look back at 2016 and peer forward into 2017, it seems that a good life is really about becoming with God’s direction and power. Living well is about going forth, instead of shrinking back.
Change is difficult. We don't like leaving a familiar life. Research has shown that people tend to overestimate the value of what they have and underestimate the benefits that a change would bring. This is even more likely for people who are successful, who have acquired satisfying relationships, significance, and prosperity through diligent effort. Why should all those assets, achieved through years of labor, be set aside for a risk? Yet God knows we need to move forward in faith, in order to be fully alive and to become like him.
Sometimes, he helps us by hard events.
In my going forth, I have uncovered a dynamic principle: God’s power for changed lives through me corresponds to the degree of personal change he has worked in me.
Rewards for going forth multiply with age, as they did for Abraham, who chose to go to a place he had never seen, with inspiring results for himself and for generations. In God's eternal economy, radical obedience produces multiplied benefits for mature sojourners and for others within their spheres of influence—some of these benefits are quite surprising. But most of us hesitate to leave what we have, because we are unable to calculate the benefits of radical change, of going forth with God to something entirely new. How can we solve this dilemma? First, we need to be honest about our blindness and ask for God's help with managing ourselves. Next, we need to choose carefully with proper motives. Finally, we need to take action and rely on God's goodness.
When we are called to a radical leaving---we can change the world with our "yes." Even if we have no idea what God is doing, we can be assured that he will not waste our obedience. Even when our performance in a new arena disappoints us, he can work wonders. Because he is always with us, we do not travel alone. Because he is with us, we display his wisdom, power, and redemption, as our years rise to a crescendo, climaxing in heavenly glory. Our stories can be life-giving to generations who need to see that God exists and that he rewards those who trust him.
