He went out, not knowing where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8)
There is nothing worse than standing over a ball on the tee box with no idea where it’s going to go. Uncertainty creeps in. Control slips away. Fear follows. Lack of control and fear are inseparable—a brutal combination. Every instinct in us resists it.
Faith invites us into that same tension—with one crucial difference.
The outcome is not left to chance. It rests in the hands of a loving and wise God who knows us—and what we need—far better than we do.
When God told Abraham to go to a place “I will show you,” Abraham had no idea where he was going. On one level, that is absolutely terrifying. It runs counter to our instincts to control, plan, and manage every detail of our lives.
No one enjoys feeling exposed or uncertain. And yet Abraham went—not knowing where he was going.
His future was entrusted to God’s hands, and those hands held far more than Abraham could ever have imagined—From your seed…
This pattern—moving forward without knowing, faith expressed through obedience—appears again and again in Scripture. Jesus framed it this way: “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” One spiritual writer described this posture as “abandonment to divine providence.”
Jesus compared life in the Spirit to the wind. Try to chase the wind, and your path will be anything but straight or predictable. And yet this is precisely the pattern Scripture gives us: surrendering ourselves to the Spirit’s leading—often along winding, unexpected routes toward people and places we could never have planned.
Oswald Chambers captures this beautifully:
“One of the most difficult questions to answer in Christian work is, ‘What do you expect to do?’ You don’t know what you are going to do. The only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing.”
Faith goes without knowing—because it trusts the goodness of the One who leads.
A life abandoned to God—without knowing—yields remarkable rewards. God’s creativity far surpasses anything we could design for ourselves. His plans carry a holy sense of adventure. To borrow from Dr. Seuss: Oh, the places you’ll go…
And the people you’ll meet. And the love you’ll give—and receive. The bold sacrifices you’ll make. The risks you’ll take. And the miracles you’ll witness along the way.
Chambers presses the point further:
“Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do—He reveals to you who He is. Do you believe in a miracle-working God, and will you ‘go out’ in complete surrender to Him, until you are not surprised one iota by anything He does?”
When we abandon our lives to the will of God, we eventually reach a place where God’s surprises no longer catch us off guard. They are expected—and they give rise to amazement, wonder, and a steady trust marked by awe.
The answer to control and fear is not more control and fear. It is a deeper abandonment to the redemptive work of God in the world through Jesus.
Sometimes clichés are appropriate: Let go, and let God.
Prayer: And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8)