Unsettled – Stuck In Haran

Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.
(Genesis 11:31-32 ESV)

Recently if there was a word to describe how I feel about my own Christian walk, and the discipleship stage of the people I lead, the word would be unsettled.  I have been this way for a while.  I have had a sense like there is more to this Christian life than showing up at Church for Sunday morning services, singing, preaching, offering collecting, hand shaking and heading home for lunch and then giving my week to meetings.  Is this what Jesus meant when He said, “I have come that you would have life?”  I don’t think so.

As I was reading through the Bible again, I was struck by a man I had never before given much thought to, Terah.  Terah is Abraham’s dad.  Abraham get’s lots of attention and is one of the most influential men of all time.  Three major religions trace their roots to him Christians, Muslims and Jews.  Terah however is like a side note to the story.  Just a guy who fathered an important guy.

What strikes me about Terah though is this, I wonder if God had more for him, but he settled too soon. “they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there.” They were under Terah’s leadership on route to the promised land, but when they got to Haran they got stuck.  The next you see of Terah is he lives 205 years and then he died.

He settled in Haran, and he died.  I am sure that Haran was a great place.  Terah likely made a good living, probably had a good life.  He raised a family, ran a business and set the kids up for the future.  He was content, happy with the way things were, he was in all ways settled.  Unfortunately he settled too soon.  The land of promise was before him and he stopped short of what could have been and he died there never knowing how full a life he could have had.  He settled in Haran, and he died.

It made me wonder how many of us are stuck in Haran.

How many of us are settled in our lives, settled with our jobs, our houses, our vacations, and because we have all of these things that bring us a measure of comfort, we stop the journey to the promise land, we stop seeking what God would have us seek?

What if God calls us to so much more?  How many of us have said, “I will serve you LORD, just on my terms.  Don’t move me, don’t disrupt me, don’t ask me to give up anything.  Just ask me to do the odd comfortable thing here when I have time, and then because I did such a great service sprinkle my life with all kinds of blessing.”

Here we find ourselves in a dilemma, because on one hand we say, “There has to be more to this Christian life than this.” and on the other hand we say, “But don’t move me or change my life.”

I think God is calling us to be unsettled.  I don’t think His mission or His gospel or His life demanded anything less than a total abandonment to our lives for the sake of following Him into real life.

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  (Matthew 16:24-25 ESV)

Jesus tells us that is we want to find true life, we have to lay down the trappings of this life for the one He gives.  This means we must take a look at our lives, our stuff, our money, our opportunities and start asking unsettling questions.  It means we have to start talking to God and asking the Holy Spirit to give us direction so we can follow Jesus into life.

We have to ask questions like – How would God have me use my money? Do I really need this house? Do I need this vehicle? Am I supposed to be doing something different with my vacation time? How am I involved in sports, is it robbing me from what Jesus has a real life?  Have I made any sacrifices on behalf of the poor?  Does God want me to stay here, and would I be willing to go if He asked me?  These are just a few to get you started.

We must ask these questions if we don’t want to be stuck in Haran.  We must ask these questions if we want to live the life Jesus said we could live.  Jesus said that He came to bring us life, and He also knew we would have to give up our inferior life in order to have it.  Jesus is supreme, Jesus is the satisfaction you are looking for, Jesus is of such value, He is worth trading everything in for.

We will be always stuck in Haran if we don’t see Jesus for who He is.  If we don’t truly believe that He is enough, if we don’t truly pursue Him to His fullest and see Him as the one where all satisfaction is found, where all life is found.

Are you dissatisfied with the Christian life you are leading?  Maybe it’s time to leave Haran.

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