Relentless Passion

There have been lives whose singleness of purpose,
     whose intensity of relentless passion, 
          can be summed up in a single phrase.

The life of Elijah can be summed up in two words: "he prayed." (Jas. 5.17)

Of Abraham, we need say no more than "he looked for a city." (Heb. 11.10)

When Abraham heard a Voice calling him he left his city,
     a city which had been by far the most populous in the world,
          a place which invented wheeled vehicles, 
               writing, irrigation, the potter's wheel.
A civilization with houses built to confront the intense heat,
     homes with indoor bathrooms.
People who, unlike others, had a wealthy middle class.
We could perhaps call it the the New York City of its day.

Around the time of the fall of this, the world's first great civilization,
    God called, ... and Abraham left,

There have been about twenty such self sufficient,
     and self assured, civilizations which have fallen since Abraham's time.
And today our world heads down the same road
     of man's inability to find the order lost in Eden.
          Again we step off the cliff, 
               and collapse into Chaos.

Abraham left all the order and prosperity of the city to live in a tent -
     not because he loved austerity, 
          but because he sought Another City.
He sought not the people and things which characterized the earthly cities,
     but the abundance of a city made by God.
He sought a place whose reason of being was not to advance the human,
     but a city whose existence was to show the One Who dwelt there -
          The God of Order, Purpose and Fulfillment.

Abraham is among those heroes of Hebrews chapter eleven,
     who could have returned to that which was known and established -
          but didn't.

The passion of the Call,
     and the passion of his seeking,
          knew no relenting.

Abraham was the father of those who believe.
     All God's children must leave the earthly when they catch a Heavenly Vision.
          All God's children are Abraham.