Comings and Goings

Hagar, where have you come from and where are you going?” Genesis 16:8

This was the story of an Egyptian slave woman who worked in the home of Abram and Sarai. Abram and Sarai had tried for the longest period of their lives to conceive. Sarai concocted this plan to build a family through the slave woman, and commanded Abram to marry and impregnate Hagar. The plan flawlessly worked, until Sarai found herself so jealous of Hagar that she began to treat her with contempt. Her treatment of the young slave girl was so bad that Hagar ran away. She was kneeling by a stream in the wilderness, distraught no doubt. The beautiful words of the messenger from God both encourage me, and haunt me. ‘Where have you come from and where are you going?’ It encourages me because I know that God sees my life spread out before Him. He knows the challenges from which I’ve come, along with the failures that defined certain seasons. Faithfully, He brought me through them and never left me alone. He knows what is up ahead and the circumstances that He is arranging to get me there. But it also somewhat haunts me to answer the question of where I’ve been. I’ve been selfish…I’ve been sinful…I’ve been dishonest…I’ve been neglectful of my fellowship with Jesus. I’m certainly not proud of some of the past ‘whereabouts’ but I’m certain of where I am now. I am forgiven…I am pursued …I am cleansed through Christ…chosen by God…empowered by the Holy Spirit. I find myself at this point living in the tension of this question. Maybe God has me in the between to show me things about myself. Maybe He has me sitting tight because for me to discover my ‘where I’m going,’ circumstances must be arranged.

“God sets the pace. He won’t move you in step with your fellow sojourners. Sometimes you’ll feel like you’re getting left behind. Other times you’ll feel like you’re leaving them behind. That’s just it. Going always involves some measure of leaving. Or God may keep you indefinitely in the same place, but if you walk with Him you cannot remain the same person. There is still the going.” The Quest, Beth Moore, p. 50. And that is precisely the point! God is more concerned with who we have become when we arrive than where we are going. Sometimes standing still is still moving…moving in our faith…moving in our resolve…moving in our transformation.

I can’t wait to see where God is taking me and taking you. As we wave our goodbyes to where we have come from, we squint our eyes to see where He is taking us. And hopefully we will never be the same.

“The LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” Psalm 121:8.