I recently preached a baccalaureate sermon and tomorrow I will preach at a Richmond area church. For both services, I am exploring the Genesis passage (12:1-9) where God calls 75-year-old Abram and his wife Sarai to leave their home and travel “to the land I will show you.” It’s important to remember the context in which this is written, how there was no google maps, no interstate highway, no rest area with food and restrooms along the way. And the call that God gave to Abram was vague, asking him to uproot his family, his animals, his possessions and to simply trust that God would lead him to “the land I will show you.”  

My sermon focuses on what bold faith Abram must have in order to follow God’s invitation. Surely each and every day he must have wondered, “Am I on the right path? Is this really where God wants me to go? Am I crazy? How do I know for sure?” And yet, Abram made the journey, took each step, ventured forth in faith and trust. And because of his faith, today Jewish, Muslim, and Chrisitan traditions are a part of the fabric of our lives. Wow. Abram is an inspiration to so many of us! 

We honor Abram, and yet, most everyone I know today wants to have a map, a plan of where they are going and how they will get there. We live in a culture where retirement plans, health care plans, living wills, and countless other legal documents are considered essential as we map our later years. It’s simply being responsible to have these plans. For the most part, I have already made many of these plans myself. 

So am I a hypocrite? For a brief moment, I think, “All our worldly planning doesn’t matter.” And then I remember how grateful I was that mom had done a lot of this type of planning. And her planning helps us navigate her care in these recent years. So yeah, maybe planning is responsible… but, how does aging with dementia fit or intersect with Abram’s call story? Am I trying to plan and orchestrate everything or do I trust God to lead me? 

Then it occurs to me, “What am I most worried about?” It’s not the legal questions or the practical details of my future years. It’s the deeper questions of meaning and purpose, of value and meaning. I don’t want to be a burden or to be seen as a nobody.  Perhaps it is a gift if I can take care of the legal and practical planning our society requires, and it’s a witness of faith if I can genuinely trust God to lead my heart and soul as I someday step onto the path of dementia and all that it entails.  

There are a lot of parallels… a person on the path of dementia has no control over how fast it develops, what memories or abilities fade first, how a personality may shift or change. Abram had no control over the path before him… the weather, the food sources available to him, the anger of others if he passed through their land, disease, frustration from his family members, etc.   

It’s terrifying, it’s depressing to ponder my future with dementia.  It’s not a journey I would ever choose to take. As I’ve mentioned before, people say things about those with dementia such as “Since she’s no longer there…” But we are more than our cognitive abilities. We are a heart, a soul, a person, a child of God made in the image of God. 

God asked Abram to trust that God would leave him to the final destination intended for him. No instructions, no details, no map was given… and Abram said “yes” to God’s invitation. Perhaps what I (and so many others) am being called to do is to peacefully and gracefully accept the journey ahead of me, to know that I cannot control it. And perhaps I’m asked to trust that even though it’s not the journey I would choose, I am not alone. God is with me and promises to lead me. And whatever lies ahead, if my attitude and my outlook is trust and faith, then perhaps the journey won’t be as awful as we all imagine it might be.  

Abram is an inspiration. I hope that I can trust God to lead me each and every day, even as my circumstances and my abilities change in the future. Perhaps in the years ahead, you might read these verses to me (or to another friend or loved one) and remind me that we don’t need to know or understand every step on our journey. But we do need to know and trust that God is with us, leading us, and will deliver us home in the end.