Leaving Your Comfortable Basement for the Adventure of a Lifetime

January 6, 2025

On January 9, 1956, Pauline Phillips was employed by the San Francisco Chronicle at $20 per week to write an advice column. She took the pen name Abigail Van Buren, and “Dear Abby” was born. Today, her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, continues to write the column. One woman recently asked for advice about her boyfriend. He lived in his parents’ basement, smoked pot every day and had no personal goals. Should she stay with this man?

Abby responded wisely and advised the woman to set some goals and ask if he wanted to help her meet those goals. If not, then move on. When I read the advice and read between the lines, Abby seemed to be screaming, “Get out of there as fast as you can!”

The problem of children giving up on life and moving into the basement goes all the way back to Abraham of the Bible. Abraham was seventy-five years old, living with his dad, Terah, and his wife, Sarah. Genesis 12 tells how God told Abraham to leave his father’s house, be the father of a great nation and receive the promised land in Canaan. The miraculous thing is that he went. There were blessings, but there were also many great trials of famine, warlords, jealous kings and God’s desire to shape him into a new man who would be a great father of a great nation. This desire of God would bring with it many trials, challenges and hardships. Wouldn’t it be easier to live in Terah’s house?

The answer is a resounding, “Yes,” if your goal in life is to remain comfortable. That is what Terah chose. In Genesis 11:31, we read, “Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.” Did you see where God was leading Terah? He was supposed to go to Canaan, but when he got to Harran he found a nice, safe place to live, and he said the two words a faithful disciple is never supposed to say to God, “No, Lord!”

I think God originally called Terah to be the father of a great nation, but he stopped in Harran. God gives us free will, so when God calls us to do His work, we can say no. Terah didn’t even pay a heavy price for his disobedience, unless one considers that his life is remembered as the dad of the great Abraham. Abraham is one of the greatest men in history. God’s will was not thwarted, it just wasn’t completed by the first person God called to accomplish God’s tasks.

What about you? Has God called you to do His will? Are you being obedient? A minister friend of mine was sharing how he was struggling with his call to be the minister at his church. There were a lot of pressures, and it seemed God was always wanting more obedience from him than he thought he could handle. In prayer, God led him to this verse, then whispered to his soul, “You weren’t my first choice.” My friend interpreted this revelation from God to mean that God had tried to get other ministers to do this hard work, but they had said, “No.” God would reward him for his faithfulness. He stayed faithful.

This is further complicated by the fact that discerning the will of God can be very complicated. I’m sure there were times that Abraham wondered if he had heard God right, and wished he had stayed in Harran. But he decided to go on the adventure of his life, even at seventy-five, and he was forever changed.

Speaking from personal experience, the hardest and most challenging adventures God has sent me on have been terrifying. They have stretched me to the limits of my faith and trust. If asked in advance if I would go on these adventures with God, would I have said, “Yes.” I doubt it, but God didn’t tell Abraham what he was getting into. Today, having experienced those adventures, I would never want to miss those experiences and the life lessons I learned that strengthen me every day.

What about you? As you begin a new year, does God have a great adventure waiting for you? How do you discern what God’s will is? Have you fallen in love with your comfortable life? How do you get started being faithful and obedient to God in a new way? I hope you have a happy new year. To God be the glory!

(To learn more about Al Earley or read previous articles, see www.lagrangepres.org. You can purchase my book, My Faith Journal, at Amazon.com, a compilation of 366 articles as a daily devotional).