You're a Pioneer

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out without knowing where he was going.
-Hebrews 11:8


This is one of my favorite Bible verses. If I have life verses, this is one of them.  My life has been a life of walking off the map and following God. What does that mean? It means that while I have made many plans and executed those plans, God's direction for me has been different or in a different dimension that supersedes my plans. Leaving many different good opportunities behind looks stupid, to be blunt, until you have your eyes opened to the reality of following God. What is really important is who you are following and who is leading you.

When you really "go out", it seems illogical and defies common sense.  You have "gone out", but you don't know where you are going, but you know that God knows what He is doing(1).  As I go out I find that, "my idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it Himself. He is the great iconoclast"(2).  The more you commit yourself to pursuing God's call to you to go out toward the unknown, as a lifestyle, the harder it is to explain your life to others(3).

As the Kierkegaard wrote, "life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards".  We live, walking forward, without understanding, as we walk by faith, following God.  It might take a lot of faith to understand the past and we may never have understanding of the tragedies that happen in life.  When you get to your inheritance, the time of hardship, as you pioneered through uncharted territory; does not seem so bad.  The long time it took seems shorter and worth it.

There is the big, "went out", when we obey, or we may seem to have no choice but to obey, perhaps with tears; and go.  Then there are the little, "went out's", that are daily.  Daily we go off our maps and follow God on an adventure that is sometimes more a "wild ride" than a slow walk.

Going out and off the map means more dependency on God.  It means you have to use your spirit more.  You have to learn to hear God.  You have to grow in faith.  You have to learn how to dig wells, to get your water, if there are none dug by someone else.

Going out will gracefully force you to grow.  The big going out is a call to growth as are all the little going outs that happen daily.


Pioneer, Pioneer
Keep pressing onwards beyond your fears
And only your Father goes before you to your own frontier
Youʼre a Pioneer
Uncharted wilderness stretches before you
And you thrive on going where no one has gone
Still it gets lonely when darkness rears
So sing by the fire until the dawn

You travel light and you travel alone
And when you arrive nobody knows
But your Father in heaven, He is glad you can go
Cause those who come after you will need the road

And what you have done, others will do
Bigger and better and faster than you
But you canʼt look back, you gotta keep on pressing through
Thereʼs a wilderness pathway and itʼs calling you
Calling you, calling you clear
Keep pressing onwards, you can't stay here...
And only your Father goes before you to your own frontier
Youʼre a Pioneer





Footnotes: 1. My Utmost For His Highest, Oswald Chambers.  2. A Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis.  3. Third Day Churches Our Principles: Our Practices #9, Gary Goodell.


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