Obedience, when it makes no sense

I've been thinking a lot lately about the crazy story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac, and the picture it presents.

I mean--even excluding the parent-child element (which adds a whole extra layer of craziness)--Abraham is being asked not only to sacrifice the one thing most precious to him in the entire world, but to destroy the miraculous means God provided to fulfill His promise of making Abraham into a great nation. There's Abraham, an old man with an old, post-menopausal wife, being told that God will give him a son. Not likely. But then through this incredible, miraculous birth of Isaac, everything is exciting and beautiful and on track for Abraham to father God's chosen people, to see this promised and hugely God-glorifying calling realized.

And then, God commands him to do the unthinkable thing: To sacrifice his son. To kill the joy of his life. To undo the only way to fulfill his calling, the way which God Himself had miraculously provided only years before.

And he obeys.

I don't pretend to be facing anything as dramatic and mind-blowingly painful and sacrificial as Abraham, but over the past couple years I have--more than once--experienced a taste of the confusion. I have seen God open doors and providentially orchestrate timing of events and so clearly lead me towards something that excites me and fills me with joy, the thing that must be my "calling"...only to have Him tell me "no" at the last minute. And I find myself asking why He lined up every so perfectly and let me get all excited if He wasn't actually calling me there. Or, if He is calling me in that direction, why that perfect step--in my mind, the obvious and and God-appointed path--towards it is being thwarted.

And I still don't know why. But I see that with Abraham, God was glorified through his obedience. His obedience not only in giving up his son whom he loved, but in--through Abraham's eyes--"thwarting" the fulfillment of what God had promised. And then God was glorified again, and He did fulfill His promise, and let Abraham keep his son and showered him with blessings on top of it.

But when Abraham chose to obey, he didn't know that would happen, and he chose it anyway. Even though it mustn't have made any sense at all.

So, if Abraham can obey God that crazily--with the life of his son and the birth of an entire nation at stake--I suppose I can trust Him with things like which country I live in, or what job I have. Even when it doesn't make sense to me.

(I have to say, though, it would be nice sometimes to get the whole audible-voice-from-God instructions which Abraham got. I mean, seriously.)