Many years ago, the company my father worked for transferred him to a job 1000 miles and five states away. The route was clearly marked, the income steady and certain. Yet my father traded the security of a sure thing for the uncertainty of starting his own business. He had the audacity to believe in something he could not see, in a destination that had no roadmap, in a God whose plans and power eclipsed his own. The business he and my mother then started today employs the second and third generations of their family.

Whether obedience to God means staying where we are or leaving behind all that is familiar, it involves risk. It often looks impractical, unwise, even foolish, to others. Imagine the questions Abram and Sarai got when they left for a place they did not know. Consider the reactions Joseph received when he chose forgiveness and restoration over revenge for his brothers’ treachery. Weigh the depth of faith required of a young peasant woman who learned she would give birth to God’s own son, the promised Savior of the world.

Through the challenges and triumphs in their stories of faith, we are inspired to examine where and in whom we place our ultimate trust. Trusting God allows us to believe the unbelievable and do the unthinkable, to love and forgive so that we “will be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2).