Day 344 Running into Fog

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take. Proverbs 3:5


John Kavanaugh spent three months in Calcutta, India, serving the poor and trying to get a handle on how best to spend his life. He met Mother Teresa, and she asked him if there was anything she could do for him. He asked her to pray for him. When she asked what she could pray for specifically, Kavanaugh asked that she pray that he would have clarity.

Mother Teresa rejected his request. She told him, “Clarity is the thing you are clinging to and must let go of.” Kavanaugh replied that he longed to have the same kind of clarity that Mother Teresa seemed to have. Hearing this, Mother Teresa laughed and said, “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.”

Many of us have made seeking clarity a higher priority than simply trusting God. In issues of faith, when we only seek the "safe path" and live on the basis of what we know and understand, we end up walking the Christian life by sight, not by faith: This pathway is dangerous to spiritual health.

Trust is faith in action. A great example is Abraham: God called Abraham to move from his own country to another one. God told Abraham that He would make him into a great nation. That was pretty much the extent of the direction that Abraham was given. Talk about lack of clarity. If I were in Abraham’s shoes, I would have wanted specific details on everything involved before setting out on the journey. I think I would have pepperred God with questions like “Where, exactly, am I supposed to go?” and “What am I supposed to do?” But tat wasn’t the way Abraham responded. Instead, trusting God, Abraham went.

He just went.

This is why Abraham is called the “father of all who believe.” Taking a closer look into Abraham’s life, it's clear that Abraham was also an average person who struggled with real life issues. He made risky decisions, and he made a number of bad decisions along the way. Abraham did not live a safe life. By pushing through his desire for clarity, he pursued God’s calling on his life and lived a life of trust.

God, help Sarah (and me) to take more steps towards following the example of Abraham, to take up the challenge of faith and live with less clarity and more trust. You told us to “live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)