Becoming

Hebrews 11 is colloquially known as the “faith” chapter. It gives a sort of accounting for the great heroes of our faith, those who get gold stars for following God. They are put forward as our earthly examples.

Abraham is one of those pillars of faith, and he, too, is listed in this chapter:

“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.” (Hebrews 11:8-12)

What a legacy!

I don’t know about you, but I often compare myself to biblical figures like Abraham and wonder when I’ll “get there.” When will my faith become that big and unshakeable? When will I become the kind of person who follows God in obedience to the extent they did?

Sigh. I am not there yet, and that can be frustrating. But, maybe it’s not as bad as it sometimes feels.

We often assume growth is linear. We start at zero, and given time, climb toward the top. The rate of growth may change; it may slow, and it may shoot up. Nonetheless, up is the goal, and, it is assumed, that is the direction we go.

In this perception of our journey of faith and transformation toward the “fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13), we would hypothetically tackle one element of spiritual formation at a time, then, once mastered, move to the next. All the while, our trajectory heads up, always progressing, always getting closer to God.

We probably think of it something like this graph:

I’m not sure this is realistic, however. In reality, our graph probably looks something like this:

While none of my data in this graph is real, it does represent what I’ve found to be true in my life and many biblical figures’ lives, surprisingly.

Instead of a constant upward trajectory, we find ourselves in a series of hills and valleys. We grow in one area and decline in another. We go through periods of doubt and drought. There are times of renewal and strengthening of faith, for sure, but it’s messier than a straight line upward.

At least, that has been my experience.

It seems to have been Abraham’s experience as well. God first gives his promise to Abram, as he was originally called, in Genesis 12. He promises He will “Make [Abram] into a great nation / and [He] will bless [him]” (Genesis 12:1). Given with this promise is God’s command to Abram to “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you” (12:1).

God asks him to leave everything he knows.

And Abram does!

He is 75 years old and goes off to start somewhere new at God’s command. Along the way, he builds not one, but two altars to God (Genesis 12:7-8)

This guy is on his way UP the spiritual ladder for sure.

Only, we see in Genesis 12:10, that famine hits the area and Abram flees to Egypt to escape. There is no indication God has told him to do this.

In fact, where is the faith he had in leaving all he’d known to travel to an unknown land solely on God’s direction? Didn’t God tell him specifically to go to the place he’s now leaving?

What is more, while in Egypt, he worries about his own life to the extent that he has Sarai pretend to be his sister so they won’t kill him to get her (Genesis 12:14). The trust he had before in God to provide and bless him apparently doesn’t apply to this trip.

That plan doesn’t work out so well, but God intervenes, handles it, and Abram and Sarai head back to Bethel.

This seems to be another awakening moment for Abram, an uptick on the graph, you might say. Here, he sees where he first built an altar and “call[s] on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 13:3). His faith is, again, on the rise.

We see this up-and-down pattern continue. In Genesis 14, Abram goes to save his nephew Lot all on his own. He is successful, but there is no mention of him calling on God before or during the attack.

Still, afterward, he remembers his oath to God and refuses any spoils of his victory so God may be glorified in his life (Genesis 14:22-24).

Great. Things are back on track.

In chapter 15, God comes to him in a vision and reminds him He is his “shield” and his “great reward” (Genesis 15:1). I don’t know about you, but I’ve never received a direct vision from God. Oh, how many times I’ve wanted the heavens to open and to hear God tell me his will directly and plainly.

Abram hears this but doubts God. He asks God, “What can you give me since I remain childless?” (Genesis 15: 2). God reassures him, but still, he needs a sign, which he asks for in verse 8.

Request granted. God’s patience is wondrous.

God promises Abram he will have a biological son, born of Sarai. Great. Still, he goes up and down the metaphorical graph. Now he believes, now he questions. Now he has faith, now he attempts to make things happen on his own (see the situation with Hagar in chapter 16, for example).

In chapter 17, finally, the official covenant is made between God and Abram. He becomes Abraham.

Surely this will be the epitome of his faith. He’s been renamed, for goodness sake. Surely he has arrived, so to speak. Surely, it will be an easy rise straight up to heaven from here for him.

Alas! It isn’t to be so.

Abraham has to move again in chapter 20. And, guess what he does, AGAIN? Yep. Passes Sarah off as his sister.

Still he fears for his life. Still he reverts to his old ways of self-preservation, lacking faith in God’s power to protect and preserve him. Still God is needed to intervene and save the situation, which, in his infinite grace, he does.

There is hope, though, for Abraham and us.

He finally gets it. We see his faithfulness pressed to a point beyond reckoning. When told to sacrifice his son Isaac in chapter 22, he doesn’t question God. He doesn’t devise his own plan to save Isaac. He searches for no loopholes and asks for no signs.

He simply obeys, trusting in faith, that God can make it all right again, regardless of how hopeless it seems to Abraham.

We know he continues in this obedience in chapter 24 when he sends his servant to find a wife for Isaac so he can remain faithful to God.

In Abraham’s story, there is hope for each of us. There is hope for me.

While there are many, many dips in what we might call Abraham’s progress toward becoming all God has called him to be, he ends as a pillar of faith, an example to all who come after him and to us, even today.

For a man who struggled off and on with his faith, his transformation is all the more miraculous and powerful for that struggle.

You see, every move downward, or away from God, he made, God met him there and brought him even higher than before, closer than before, so that even though he fell short, God used that to grow his faith all the more. Even in his dips and valleys, he was becoming a man of faith that would, eventually, not falter.

Our goal, too, is upward. God is there all the while, calling to us, encouraging us, “Come further up! Come further in,” as C. S. Lewis puts it. That call doesn’t change when we slip; it perhaps becomes a bit clearer and closer as he helps us up.

We, like Abraham, are on our way. We, too, are still becoming what God calls us to be.

Just like Abraham, we will get there because God is with us.