Heart Tracks - Living In Haran

      The Spirit brought to mind today a passage of scripture from Genesis 11. It's about Terah, the father of Abraham.  Terah had a son named Haran, but he had died while still a young man in Ur of the Chaldeans.  After this, perhaps in grief and seeking to forget, Terah took his family out with the intention of settling in the land of Canaan.  However, they came to a village named Haran, and stopped there.  What was likely meant to be just a stop became a dwelling place.  Terah died there.  He never got past the village of Haran, and I think it may also be true that he never got past the grief and pain of losing his son Haran.  He never stopped "living" in that place.

      We live in a fallen world, and as a result, none of us, whether we are believers or not, are immune from loss, failure, defeat, betrayal, and abandonment.  Events may come about that are truly devastating to our lives.  The death of loved ones.  The failure of a business, a ministry.  The betrayal of friends, the terrible attacks of adversaries, and the unavoidable losses that are a part of life.  We can't help but be affected by them, and on every level of our lives, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.  We can be paralyzed in all of these areas, and very easily, we can end up "living" there, just as Terah did.
      It may be that when Terah came to that village with the same name as his son, all the memories and pain of his loss flooded in on him.  He had wanted to go on, but somehow, he couldn't.  He was trapped in Haran, and in Haran he would die.  I think so many of us are also trapped in our own "Haran's", crippled, paralyzed, by loss, failure, betrayal and disappointment.  What the Father would take us past, we have settled into.  No matter how much time has passed, we are still there, and the pain and wounds of the past are just as real in our present, and as a result, have stolen our future.  The Father calls us to Himself, but Haran holds us in its grip.
     We see this in relationships.  Men and women who have been betrayed by their spouses, or someone they loved, find themselves unable to form real relationships with the opposite sex.  Mistrust and suspicion rule.  They're trapped in Haran.  Those who have failed, sinned, find themselves unable to receive His forgiveness, and live under a condemnation that doesn't come from Him.  They're trapped in Haran.  Others who have been deeply disappointed in what their life has been.  Disappointed in others, themselves, even the Father, living in that disappointment. They too are trapped in Haran.  Yet all the power of these Haran's cannot keep out the voice of Christ, a voice that always calls us forth.  Like Lazarus from the tomb, we may come forth from Haran, if we'll but hear Him, listen to Him.
     Are you, likeTerah, living in Haran, trapped there?  You needn't like Terah, die there.  The chains and bars that keep you there can, will, with a word from Him, fall off, fall down.  Healing will come, and with it, freedom, strength, and the ability to move on, to the place He has called you to. The pain of the loss, the wound, the failure and betrayal is real, but the joy of His hope is more real.  He calls you, me, us, forth into that hope.  He calls us now, out of Haran, into Himself.  Do we come?

Blessings,
Pastor O