Previous post: Genesis 12
Genesis 13 is the story of Abram and Lot separating. Abram lets lot choose which land to take.
So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herders and mine, for we are close relatives. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.” Genesis 12:8-9, NIV
Of course, one good lesson to take away from this is to try to live your life with a sacrificial humility: to make personal sacrifices to avoid interpersonal arguments. But, here’s what resonated with me about this passage:
Sometimes in life, we make it seem as though a decision is absolutely black and white—as if two options lie before us, one of those options will bring with it God’s blessing and the other God’s curse. We do it with our careers: should I choose this job or that? We do it with big purchase decisions such as homes or cars: should we choose this one or that? We even do it with family planning: should we have 1 kid or 2? No kids or 9? We agonize over the decisions as though making the wrong one dooms us to a life of misery.
Do you think Abram would’ve suffered the same fate as Lot had he chosen different land? I don’t. I think it was the decisions they made along the journey…specifically whether or not they walked with God or without God on said journey. I think the same can be said for many of our decisions. It isn’t so much about whether you choose the more humble-looking house or the more spacious one…or the career with a more lucrative future or the lesser…or the minivan or the SUV. No, it’s about inviting God along on the journey and trying your best to remember that it’s all God’s to begin with. Then, God will bless the journey like he did Abram’s.
Ultimately, there are a lot of decisions in my life that I’ve boiled down to right or wrong, God-blessed or God-cursed.
I remember agonizing over the decision whether or not to move back to Amarillo from College Station, TX. Ol’ Lot would’ve chosen College Station 100/100 times, by the way. My wife and I prayed and prayed over that decision. In hindsight, I’m thrilled with our decision and see many God-given blessings from the move. But, I don’t believe that life in College Station would’ve been doomed to sadness and depravity. No, God could’ve done amazing, miraculous things there, too.
What’s my point? I have no idea. Thanks for listening to my podcast.
Just kidding. Maybe the story of Genesis 13 is telling me that I was agonizing over some of these for no reason. Maybe there wasn’t a right or wrong answer. And, maybe the initial decision was the least important aspect of the whole process. In other words, maybe how you walk the journey is more important than the initial decision-making process. More importantly, if I believe that decisions in my own life can have a lot of gray area in them, maybe I should give a little more grace for the decisions others make about their lives. And maybe, just maybe, when others make decisions I would deem as “wrong”, maybe I’m looking at their decision as if they choose the land Abram ended up with. It looks worse to me compared to their other options. But, in the end, God is bigger than my opinion of their decision. So, it’s better for me to join people and help them walk with Jesus on their journey than it is for me to gripe about their chosen destination or, worse, to crucify them for it.
This week’s hip hop rap AI summary:
Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™sun