Loving while blind - Part 1

I remember early on during my Christian walk feeling led, like Abraham, to leave everything I knew that was safe and familiar. To leave the comfort zones of my old fall backs and defenses. To leave the comfort zones of control, of respectability, of success in the eyes of men (and women). 

To leave the comfort zone of - warning: sacred cow ahead - the "happily ever after" I had promised myself that my life would become. I even had a vision once where an eagle with a satchel strapped to its belly carried away my hopes and dreams. It felt as cruel as when the Wizard of Oz stranded Dorothy on the dock as he floated back to Kansas on a Hot Air balloon.

God paradoxically blindfolds us and then tells us to "walk". Our walk of faith is one of those things that leads us down such narrow passages that the luggage we are carrying won't fit. Sometimes that "luggage" is our own hopes, dreams and plans for our life.

Strangely, that vision about the eagle with my hopes and dreams was from God; the same God who sent Abraham off to an unknown journey. The same God who let the Israelites be boxed in with the sea on one side and Egyptian chariots on the other. The same God who told Peter how he would be martyred and then said, "Follow me".

We are challenged to believe, to walk and keep on believing and walking and loving while blindfolded. Our role model Jesus entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 1 Peter 2:23

Life challenges me constantly to choose trust- will I love God even before I get an answer to my prayer? Will I love and follow Him even if I never get an answer? My loved one's never healed? The relationship stays broken?  If the money doesn't come? Sometimes I choose trust, sometimes fear.

In Hannah Hurnard's book Hinds Feet on High Places, the main character, “Much Afraid” (feel familiar?) is given a seed of faith and love that is put into her heart. It’s razor sharp and hurts going in but as she continues down her unknown path, that same seed grows and blooms within her to a mature love and faith.

That is what this is all about. Growing. Releasing our own plans for the outcome into His trustworthy hands. Easy? Not hardly.

But remember: when Dorothy's "hope" was carried away by the Wizard, she was shown that the power - [Holy Spirit power] - to guide her way was within her all along. 

For we walk by faith and not by sight.   2 Corinthians 5:7 NASB

What darkened road are you feeling led down today? What dream feels like it's being snatched from your hands?  Will you trust and love Him as you keep on walking?