Out of Ur: strangers in a strange land? Some editors at Leadership, a part of the Christianity Today family of publications, have taken a leap of faith and entered the blogosphere conversation. Likening themselves to Abram of Old Testament fame, who was called to leave his homeland on a pilgrimage to some promised land, the Out of Ur bloggers describe in their introductory post their trepidation in venturing out from their comfort zone:
We have a new call here at Leadership, not fueled by penance but by promise. Like Abram, we have a call from God to leave familiar land and venture to a strange place where we hope things will turn out well. Like Abram, we might wonder how we’ll know when we get there.
Abram’s Ur was familiar. Its religions and culture made sense -- at least to him and to those who had lived there their whole lives. Our Ur was logical and rational. Its tenets and well-reasoned arguments made sense—at least to those whose origins are there. But we are called to a new place characterized by a brave, new worldview, one not so dependent on reason.
Why are we shocked that we must leave the place of reason? Was faith ever about reason? Was our calling ever about what we ourselves could deduce, plan, or enact? If it was, then it was never Divine. Instead, as pilgrims in a new culture, we find we must trade linear thinking for mosaic, sight for faith, and majority status for a narrower perch in a pluralistic society, hoping all the while we don’t fall off into syncretism.
Welcome aboard, fellow sojourners. I'm not sure the promised land is out here, but enjoy the journey anyway.