When You Don’t Know Yet

This verse just hit different this morning:

“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance“ —and here’s the part that gets me— “And he went out, not knowing where he was going.” (It’s Hebrews 11:8).

It’s so relatable to have a strong feeling that you are headed in the right direction, knowing you’re obeying God and heading towards something great. But that does not mean you know what you’re doing or where the path you’re on will lead.

And while the feeling of excitement that you’re following God in faith and heading towards a reward is amazing, that doesn’t mean the feeling of insecurity in your lack of knowledge isn’t equally real. And oftentimes, overwhelming even.

The feeling of, “I don’t know where I’m going” can often be debilitating or painful even when we know we are being led by God. We can doubt whether we are going in the right direction or whether giving up what we left behind was worth it.

But this is faith, that feeling of being torn between what we know and what we don’t know yet. We know that God loves us, that he has promises for us up ahead and that he places events and circumstances in our lives to guide us towards truly good things. But we don’t often know exactly how that path will look or what we are even moving towards. Do we risk it all, choosing what we know is true of God over all the unknowns, or do we grasp hold of the unknowns as leverage for why we should not move forward at all?

I say we take Abrahams approach and just “go out, not knowing where [we are] going.”

Hebrews 10 sums it up well, “‘My righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back my soul has no pleasure in him.’ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but if those who have faith and preserve their souls.”