There is a popular verse in the Bible where God was speaking to Abraham, while he was still Abram and finding his feet after finally separating from Lot his brother’s son.
Genesis 13:14-17 NLT
After Lot had gone, the LORD said to Abram, “Look as far as you can see in every direction—north and south, east and west. I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants as a permanent possession. And I will give you so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted! Go and walk through the land in every direction, for I am giving it to you.”
It is a popular verse often quoted with discussions on separating from people and things that hold us back when we are supposed to take the next big step. This is not to say Lot was an evil influence but reading the story of Abraham, you will clearly see that a lot of positive things happened to and for him after the separation from Lot. This verse actually came to my mind as i was reading Elaine Welteroth’s bestseller “More Than Enough”. The way she owned herself, her mistakes, and fought forward after leaving a difficult decision to leave her first love of over five years of relationship is remarkable. A life-changing choice to look for an Internship opportunity in Los Angeles with the help of Chey, aunt Janet’s daughter and the outcome of interviewing Talib Kweli brought her to a place of deep realization and affirmation.
She writes; “When your dreams are bigger than the places you find yourself in, sometimes you need to seek out your own reminders that there is more. And there is always more waiting for you on the other side of fear”. (More Than Enough, pp 83).
Many of us do not even recognize the point to embrace our affirmation that we can be more and we need not apologize to chase it. Abraham had to leave his father’s house, then even though he went on with Lot, they had to separate for him to move on to the next phase of his life. You know, if you have had to break up from something you are emotionally attached to, it is very difficult and many people never get to that point of letting go. Elaine Welteroth writes about her point of reckoning in a “ride or die” relationship with someone she felt the responsibility to fix at all cost and that was not going anywhere….
” After five and a half years together, i had officially and metaphorically ridden this thing until the wheels fell off; it was time to get out and run my own race in the other direction”. (More Than Enough, pp 60).
Separation is hard, I kid you not. When I made up my mind to come to Sweden to Study for an MSc in Sustainable Development, it was a dream finally coming through and true. I gave everything up and packed my bags coming alone. I left my children, and husband behind (with their blessings and support), hopped on the Emirates Flight from Lagos to Dubai and landed in Stockholm that late August afternoon. It was something I had never done in my life and i ended up being the only student from Africa in my class. It was the hardest thing to fit in and i never still feel i fit ever fit in till now but i did not come all the way from Lagos to feel sorry for myself….i had this moment and i will ride on the opportunities through the highs and lows as they come.
As i read “More Than Enough” by Elaine Welteroth in the middle of writing my master thesis which gets confusing sometimes, i remember the importance of knowing when to let go and chasing a bigger dream. I reckon the power of “Vision and Faith” and as Elaine describes on her journey. She writes on how she understood that “The bigness of her life would not be determined only by the bigness of her dreams but in her capacity to trust there is a Higher Power who would always take those dreams and multiply”.
As Christians, we call that trust in a Higher Power, faith. To believe that God would help you when you make the effort. To believe enough to take the step even when things are not perfectly in order. To push through every barrier even when it is not the easiest thing to do. To never give up on yourself and your dreams even when you fall and fall and fall and fall again. ( I have to emphasize the fall because it is personal).
But you just never know if your vision isn’t far enough and when you are not ready to take a single step because maybe you are too afraid to fail. God told Abraham “As far as you can see”…… That is having a vision and having the faith to take that step. Who knows what would have happened to her dreams, if Elaine never actually made the effort to Intern in Los Angeles? The very moment of waking up to your own possibilities of the things you can actually achieve when you have the faith to take the step even when you cannot see the whole stretch of the road.
I write to myself and today I am reminding myself of just how my dreams are valid and just how many possibilities i carry. As God told Abraham, I am telling my inner eyes to look so far and see far enough, to see bigger, to dream bigger.
How about you? What is holding you back that you need to let go, so you can see clearly ahead?