"By faith, Abraham obeyed...By faith he sojourned...By faith he received power to generate..."
Hebrews 11:8, 9, 11
I love it when lessons come in lovely packages of three! So I loved our homily this past Sunday. Abraham did what we are all asked to do. In faith, Abraham obeyed and followed God to an unknown land. Abraham even obeyed God in the shocking request of sacrificing his own son. Abraham obeyed. In order to obey God, Abraham had to listen and hear God, so that is essential first. We are also called to listen, hear and obey in our lives. What do we hear God asking us to do? Is it to take up a ministry? Donate to a worthy cause? Befriend someone new to our neighborhood? Second, Abraham was asked to journey. He had to leave what was comfortable and familiar for a new place. He traveled. He went out of himself. Sometimes we can get stuck in the rut of the familiar and we need to shake our lives up a bit. If we cannot uproot completely, can we go away for a while to an unfamiliar place? Can we change our routine a bit? Add prayer time on one end of the day or the other? Finally, Abraham generated. He generated many new people, but the point is he did something. What are we being asked to do? Are we being asked to go out and make disciples of all the nations? (Pope Francis has said so!) Or are we being asked to evangelize the people around our own dinner table? In our work environments? Can we generate new disciples by living our faith fully and showing the joy of knowing Jesus to others? Obey, journey, generate. How are we being asked to do what God asked of Abraham? Let's think about it this week! Love, heidi
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