Blessings, Blessings, Everywhere
Keith McFarren
June 7, 2026
Genesis 12:1-9
    The glory of human history lies in the early pioneers who set out to follow a dream.  Webster’s dictionary defines a pioneer as “one who goes before, as into the wilderness preparing the way for others to follow.”  The movement of the pioneer can be precipitated by one of many motives: motives such as feeling some type of inner restlessness, of personal ambition and/or a thirst for the new and undiscovered.  
    Whatever it is that causes him to move forward, the pioneer has always been looked at as a creative force in the destiny of mankind.  Think of Christopher Columbus sailing from Spain over previously untraveled oceans to find a new world.  Think of the colonists at Jamestown and the Pilgrims up and down the New England coastline and so many others that have shaped the world around us.
    In each case there were nay sayers and there were doubters that thought these pioneers were foolish…or out of their minds might be a better way to describe them.  But many great men have gone forward to follow that call or to follow that conviction…the calling they felt burning deep down inside of them.  
    William James, in his book, Memories and Studies, suggests that “the human individual lives far within his limits; he possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use.  He energizes below his maximum, and he behaves below his optimum” (William James, Memories and Studies, New York, Longmans, Green and Company, 1911,238).  
    But the pioneer goes over and beyond all this.  The pioneer, using both his physical and mental attributes, willingly takes that unknown step forward and shows the world what living at life’s optimum can produce.
    I can remember feeling a sort of inner restlessness when I felt God was calling me into ministry.  I was a funeral director; I was happy and content with what I was doing.  We went to church every week and I worked on various committees and took part in various activities at Trinity.
    But along the way I began to feel different inside…like something was trying to suddenly take my life in another direction.  It was this inner restlessness that I’ve been talking about this morning that just kept gnawing at me.  
    And I found myself beginning to explore into what I felt God was telling me to do.  And I began to explore where I felt God was telling me to go.  And I began to explore how I was going to get to where I felt God wanted me to go.  There was no drive of personal ambition at all…it was strictly the continual inner restlessness that God had created within me and eventually, after a number of years of restlessness and exploration, I felt I had to answer his call.
    Anyone who is in ministry in the United Methodist Church knows their faith story.  As clergy, we know it because we have been asked to tell it numerous times as we prepared for our ministry.  I remember telling my story to the Staff Parish Committee at Trinity UMC.  I told my faith story to the Trinity Ad Council when they were checking my ministry qualifications.  I told my story to Mike Mather, my mentor at Broadway Christian Parish and I have told my faith story to the District Committee on Ministry…to the people of Faith UMC in South Bend and, over the years, I’ve told it to you as well.
Pioneers, any type of pioneer, who feel this type of inner restlessness or people like you and me who feel this need to look deeper into the unknown are more often than not, led by a higher force or a higher power.
    It might even be said that every great advancement in the history of mankind has in some way or another been led by the divine will of God.  No one fully understands how or why God decides to choose certain people and then calls those people to do certain things…but some how, some way, through the openness of our hearts and minds, one knows when it is time to step forward and turn themselves over to that inner calling.
I’ve felt God’s call or I’ve heard God’s call or something like that.  And I struggled immensely with what to do about it.  But at this point in my life I can stand up here and honestly say that I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I did the right thing and I followed through with what he wanted me to do.  
  But the best part is, I feel that like he did to Abraham, God kept his promise in that I have been blessed, over and over again for answering his call and hopefully I have been a blessing to others in some way or another.    
    But here’s the thing: my background is no different than yours.  My calling doesn’t make me special.  My calling doesn’t put me up on a pedestal nor does it make me any holier than you.  
    Abraham’s background was no different than mine or yours.  His calling doesn’t make him special. It doesn’t put him up on a pedestal nor is he any holier than you are.  The only thing different about us is that we (Abraham and I) answered God’s call and maybe, for some reason or another, you haven’t because you’re not willing to take a chance on following God’s call to do something out there in the unknown.
    Abraham was told that “I’ll make of you a great nation” and “I’ll make your name great.”  That’s a lot of recognition for a guy that suddenly appeared out of nowhere…a guy no one had ever heard about before.  
I’ve never had God congratulate me on a great sermon but I’ve had people say“You did a good job today,” and to me that’s quite an honor…that’s all I need.  But answering God’s call, whatever that call may be, is not about notoriety; it’s not about being a celebrity or being recognized for what we’ve done.  
    What I did and what Abraham did is simply surrendering ourselves to God and then opening our hearts and minds so that we might be useful for God’s purposes.  
    You let God use you.  You let God use your name or you let God use your likeness.  You let God use who you are and what you do, no matter how big or how small.  Let God use you in the way he wants so that you can be a blessing to others.  
    By letting God use you in the way he wants, your importance to the world around you becomes wrapped up not in who you are but in the powers that God has given you.  Your importance comes from the power God give to you to bring hope to others, to bring hospitality to the stranger, to bring compassion to help heal those that are broken and to offer God’s grace to those throughout the world who so desperately need it.
    Your importance is to those throughout the world.  That’s what it’s all about.  It’s about making disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  It’s easy for us to say…but when it comes right down to it, we don’t go around thinking about transforming the world.  We have enough problems of our own.  We have enough problems transforming the people within our own little church.  We have problems transforming our families.  Who really has time to think about transforming the world?
    Can you imagine the thoughts that must have been going through Abraham’s head?  Being responsible for all the families of the earth may have seemed a little bit much as he packed his bags and his boxes for his cross countrymove.  Can you imagine what it felt like for Abraham, an everyday guy like you and me, to all of a sudden carry the hope and the promise and the burden of expectation all on his shoulders at the same time?
We’re told then that “…Abraham went.”  He had no idea where he was going but he “went.”  I had no idea where God was taking me, but I “went.”  I went because I had faith…that he would take care of me wherever I was to go.  
    It think it was the late great coach John Wooden who said, that “failing to prepare…is preparing to fail.”  It’s hard to go…it’s hard to say yes…it’s scary to say yes…especially when you don’t know where you’re going.  It’s hard to say yes and then go when there isn’tsome type of plan laid out before you or someone standing there with an open hand offering to show you the way.
    But Abraham was a man of faith.  And without any preparation, Abraham went.  He went without any information as to where he was going or what he would be doing.  God would reveal everything to him as he went.  Leave the familiar behind, God said, and go to a place I will show you…not a place that’s known to you…but an unknown place.  
    And off he went, one step at a time.  We’ll go this far today, and see what happens.  Tomorrow, we’ll make it to a wide space in the road, put up our tents, stay there overnight, and then pick up where we left off the next day.
That’s the way it is following God.  That’s the way it is when we live our life not by sight, but by faith.  Every journey with God is a step by step process…and none of it is certain.
    Life with God is anything but certain.  Every step we take…every journey we make is uncertain.  But our faith keeps us going.   Our faith keeps us putting one foot in front of the other.  That’s the only way to get where we’re going.  That’s the only way to get to where God wants us to go.  
    Saying yes to God and then going.  That’s what it means to live by faith, even when the odds seem to be stacked against us.  Saying yes to God…that’s the only way for us to be a blessing to every person on earth and that’s the promise that God makes to each of us.  
    We live our faith everyday, taking one step forward at a time.  Steps that lead us into an unknown future.  Steps that cause us to make connections with unknown people in unknown places…steps that will cause unknown people to respond in unknown ways.  Steps that allow us to be used by God and to be a blessing to all those we come into contact with.
    Abraham’s trust in the promise of God and his move from Haran to Canaan opened up a whole new life for him.  But at the same time, the God who commanded Abraham and made promises to him will also change forever as well.  Having made promises, and being faithful to those promises, means that God is now committed to a future with the one who has faithfully responded to God’s call.
    Saying yes to God opens up an entirely new relationship with God because we now have the promise that after we say yes, God will continue to uphold his promise to always be with us.  
    Saying yes to God is opening yourself up to be blessed by God but it also assures us that by following him, we will be a blessing to others as well.