Walk Before Me and Be Blameless

 

In Genesis 17, God says to Abram, "I am God almighty; walk before me, and be blameless."

 

God’s words to Abram weren’t a transaction. Not a test. Not a condition for love or favor. No, this wasn’t 'do this so I’ll love you.' This was something richer, deeper. A calling that arises because of what’s already been given.

 

God had already chosen Abram. Already set His covenant in motion. Already made promises that Abram could never earn. The call to walk blamelessly was not the way into the relationship—it was the way to live inside it.

 

That’s when the line from Saving Private Ryan came into my thoughts.  Monday night my family and I were vacationing at Yosemite and and sat down together and watched “Saving Private Ryan.”

 

At the end of the movie, after many men had died in this costly rescue mission, Captain John Miller, bleeding out on a bridge in Ramelle, looks up at Private Ryan and whispers:

 

 “Earn this.”

 

It’s a haunting line. A burden. A gift that sounds like a debt.

 

All around us, the culture preaches that message: Earn it. Earn your keep. Earn your second chance. Earn your spot. Earn your salvation.

 

But that’s not the voice we hear in Genesis 17.

God doesn't say "Earn this."

 He says, “Walk with me.”

 He doesn’t say, "Justify what I've done for you."

 He says, “Live in the light of it.”

 

Miller's words carried the weight of sacrifice, yes—but also a burden no man could carry. Private Ryan, as an old man, stood before Miller’s grave and asked his wife, “Tell me I’ve lived a good life. Tell me I’m a good man.”

 

Even decades later, he wasn’t sure if he’d earned it.

But when God speaks to His people, He doesn’t lay a burden on their backs. He lays His own name on their foreheads.

 

We walk not to prove something, but because we've been invited into something already begun. A covenant not earned but received.

 

So there on the patio overlooking a beautiful valley near Yosemite,  I scribbled it down:

 

Live faithfully, not to earn it. Live in light of what has already been given you.

 

That’s the better word. The truer word.

 Not “Earn this.”

 But “It is finished.”

 

And in response: walk.....

"In Excelsis Deo" 

("Glory to God in the highest.")