The first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong, passed away August 25, 2012. He was 82 years old. We will never forget his words as he stepped on the surface of the moon, July 20, 1969. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” This stupendous accomplishment took place just eight years after the Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, orbited the earth for the very first time. Armstrong is just one of many who risked their lives to go where no one else has gone, and do what no one has ever done. This adventure of quest is rare since most of us are not risk takers. It is said these men had the “right stuff.”

Abraham was a risk taker, not because he was just curious, but because he received a call from God who saw he was a man of faith in an idolatrous land. Abraham lived in that part of Babylon that is today called Kuwait. God told him to leave his country and his relatives and go to a place that would be revealed to him. He followed the trade route of the Fertile Crescent that circled north near present Baghdad, and went down into Palestine. He did not know where he was going. He trusted God to show him the way. The author of Hebrews concluded regarding him: “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going” (Heb. 11.8). Abraham had the “right stuff.”

Philosopher, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing declared that if God came to him offering in His right hand the whole of truth and in His left hand the search for truth with all the toil, travail and trouble of searching for it, he would choose the left hand – not the finished product, but the adventure or the quest for truth. Interesting.

The Christian life is an adventure of faith. Remember what James said, “whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow” (James 4.14). Abraham had no idea of the challenges that awaited him, and there were many, but He trusted God to lead him through them all.

We must embrace faith’s adventure. God will never forsake us: “For He Himself said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Heb. 13.5). If we stay on the true path, God’s word and providence will lead us in the direction we need to go.

Do you have the “right stuff”?