Genesis 12:1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.”

After this, God tells Abram some wonderful things He will do for him, but the instructions, the calling, if you will, are given right here. Frankly, they seem rather negative, like they all deal with loss. God is very specific that Abram is to leave everything that gave him security: physical location, cultural identity, family connections. He is allowed to take his wife with him, and his nephew tags along, and he takes what amounts to his financial resources with him, but I really wonder how he felt about it all in balance. Reading it in Japanese really hit me, because the Japanese have such a strong sense of cultural identity, and Abram was explicitly told to leave all that behind. This reminds me a great deal of missionaries. Abram didn’t have instructions to “evangelize the nations,” but there are certainly many parallels. As the following verses indicate, God was going to use Abram in His plan of salvation for the whole world, but Abram didn’t understand that at this point. In fact, he probably didn’t understand salvation at all! The point for us, however, is that being fully available to God for how He wants to use us requires letting go of everything else. It’s not that hometown and culture and family are bad, it’s that God must take precedence. Anything we hang onto that blocks us from obeying God has become an idol. That is likely different for each individual, but it’s very real. The devil knows our preferences, and he will use them all he can to distract us from God’s plans for us. The thing is, what God has for us is far better, more glorious and satisfying, than anything the devil could use to tempt us, but we have trouble believing it in the heat of the moment. That’s why the commitment to obey, to follow, can be so difficult, so stretching to our faith. We need to be like Abram, following in obedience regardless of the seeming cost, trusting that what God has planned for us will be far better than anything we could cook up on our own.

As a missionary and the child of missionaries, this hits very close to home. My mother said that the only thing she felt she gave up to be a missionary was proximity to family. After all, the Lord gave her a husband and then children after that, even on the mission field! For me, the sacrifice seems even smaller, because I am serving in the land where I was born and raised. Separation from extended family seems natural! Early this year, when I heard that my brother had been hospitalized with dementia and needed interaction with family members to anchor him, I made plans immediately to go see him, to provide that anchor. The logistics of my wife’s medical issues delayed that, so that we eventually went together about two months later than I originally intended, (had I been going alone) but now we’re back here, and he’s still there. He was given a phone with a “dementia-friendly” program on it to enable video chats with me, but when I tried to install that program on my phone, I got the message, “not available in your country.” There are work-arounds I’m still going to try, but this isn’t going to make me leave my “work station” here in Japan on a permanent basis. My wife has had even stronger emotional issues in relation to her family. Her younger brother died in 2024, and she wasn’t able to go to the funeral because of her health issues. The trip this year was her first opportunity to visit his grave. Likewise, she has trouble communicating with her older sister because of her sister’s situation, and that is painful at times. She too is committed to “remaining on station.” We of course have missionary friends, from multiple countries, and we are united in our commitment to be where God has sent us, seeking to do what He tells us to do, for His glory alone.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for choosing to use us, Your certainly imperfect children, to accomplish Your purposes on this earth. May I be as committed as Abram, even when I see no more than he did, so that Your will may be done indeed, for the salvation of many and for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!