“But Abram replied, ‘O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings, when I don’t even have a son? …You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own that will be your heir.’ Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, ‘Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!’” –Genesis 15: 2a, 3-5 (NLT)
Abram, later renamed Abraham, became the father of the nations; the “father of generations.” And yet, when he was first called to this, his wife was barren. As if that wasn’t enough, he and his wife Sarai (later named Sarah) were well beyond “child-bearing” years. Their situation was so delicate, because to be barren in that time, was shameful. And now God was calling them to something that they had already wrestled with and gone through the embarrassment of. So this whole situation was impossible, right? Abram thought so. Rather than just do the easy thing and TRUST God, Abram tried to make something out of this calling and try to bring it to life, so he wouldn’t fully disappoint God. It’s interesting how, when we don’t see what God is calling us to as possible, we tweak it just a little to try to make it work. “Oh, God couldn’t have meant that literally… so I’ll do this instead, over here because that’s close to what He said anyway,” we might decide. The whole point of the calling is for it to be impossible! Otherwise, we could do it ourselves. Why do we try to make something work our way, and settle for that? When we could fully experience, beyond ourselves, something so much better. A call that seems impossible for us, we try to turn around so we can make it a possibility. Abram suggested adopting one of his servants as heir (vs. 2), or later in chapter 16, his wife told him to have relations with one of their Egyptian servants (Gen. 16:1-4). These options were close to what God had called him to…but they weren’t 100% his potential or destiny. It’s not about us performing something or coming up with a plan that looks like God’s plan, so we can semi-please Him. The key is obedience to Him, no matter how ridiculous it sounds, and then everything falls into place. God loves to call us to impossible things. I think, because of His sense of humor, maybe he likes to see the looks on our faces. 
But what He loves even more is for us to allow Him to make it possible. We don’t need to come up with alternate plans to please Him, because they won’t please Him. They especially won’t please Him if they are made to cop-out of the real thing you’re supposed to do. It’s so much easier to just trust Him…there’s no guilt, no jealousy, no dishonesty, no impurity. Allow God to make your calling literally literal.
