Relocating to a foreign country, far from the place you once felt was your own, without it being your primary wish or a long-prepared plan, is akin to a fire, a flood, a war – any disaster where you lose your home. Everything you had filled your home with over the years, all those little things that held sentimental value, the things you were emotionally attached to and that were destroyed, lost, or left far away, trigger a prolonged sense of grief and often turn into anger, disappointment, and a sense of helplessness. It’s like losing a loved one.

And on top of all that, you are now forced to continue your life in a place you did not choose, to which you feel no belonging, which feels foreign – sometimes even hostile. This causes great stress, although there is no person who has never experienced some form of extreme stress.

So how do you deal with the paralyzing stress and fear of the unknown when you’re stuck in place and aware there is no going back, no possibility of returning to the old ways?

The first logical response might be: Thank God, I still have my family, as long as they are alive and well, we’ll manage the material things somehow! But what if there’s no family, if you’re left alone, relying only on your own strength and abilities?

Extreme stress often evokes anger, rage, fear, and disappointment. That’s nothing new or unknown. It’s often even logical. But not everything what is logical is always true! Anger, rage, fear, and disappointment are not positive emotions that anyone should identify with throughout life. Such emotions are common – no doubt! But a Christian, who follows the Word of God, should avoid them.

But if these emotions do appear – without our conscious choice – then we must use them for good, to build something better and greater for ourselves. In that case, they can even be positive – if used properly. Otherwise, they are extremely destructive if we don’t rise above them and instead cultivate them as our own.

Nurtured negative emotions usually lead to some form of pathology. Often to depression. A depressed person stops fighting, retreats into themselves, and shuts off from the world. They build emotional walls to shield themselves from future pain, disappointment, and fear – using these walls as a defense mechanism. But over time, those walls become a prison from which they can’t escape, except through clinical treatment and medication. Within those prison walls remains only a non-existent world – a world of the past, which is gone in reality and cannot return.

The opposite path – the Christian path – calls us to use the stress and emotions it generates to build “immunity” necessary for life’s serious battles. Like a bitter pill or a strong herb that protects us from future dangers.

This “immunity” is – trust in God’s plan for us. Every Christian knows that God has a plan for him or her, and that every episode in our life – especially the difficult and stressful ones – is only a stage toward fulfilling that plan. Just as a skier races toward a goal by following the posted flags placed on the course, recognizing them as signposts, so the Christian moves toward God, toward the Kingdom of Heaven, along the path laid out by God. And God has given each Christian a unique course – everyone’s path and plan is different.

However, acquiring trust in God’s plan is a process. It doesn’t come overnight or on its own, unless the Christian actively works to obtain it. So how is that “immunity” built – what is the medicine or the bitter herb that develops it within us?

It is GRATITUDE.

Gratitude is an emotion, not an act. Gratitude is the goal of a path, not the path itself. Gratitude is built and developed – it is not given freely or bought with money. Gratitude is an emotional state a Christian should inhabit in order to build trust in God’s plan. It is acquired by actively confronting the events, people, and circumstances God places on our path, and contemplating how God wisely used each of them to teach us something and lead us somewhere we would never have reached if we had followed only our own plans and desires.

Though I said gratitude is a process we must walk ourselves, through effort and spiritual work, the Lord did not leave us helpless or abandoned on that path. He gave us the Holy Scriptures – His Word written for all generations – to show us how to reach the goal of life, through the example of those who walked the path before us.

One of the most beautiful examples of this is the journey of the patriarch Abraham – a journey that has inspired the world for nearly 4,000 years. And the beginning of that journey is a perfect illustration of what we are talking about here. So let’s walk with Abraham to find our own path – the personal path of trust in God’s plan.

The first book of the Old Testament, the Book of Genesis, tells us: “Now the Lord had said unto Abram: Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.”…

And so Abram went, as the Lord had told him.

He simply went!? Without words, without complaints, without arguments?

We know his father Terah was a wealthy man and that they lived in a city and region more advanced culturally and civilizationally than the region to which God was sending him. And God didn’t even tell him where he was going! If anyone thinks this was easy – that Abraham’s acceptance of the call is something anyone could do without much trouble – they are deeply mistaken.

Such a dramatic change – leaving his father’s rich and comfortable home, his city, his land, his relatives and friends, his familiar world – and venturing into the unknown, without any idea where he was going or a detailed reason why – was an extremely stressful situation. A change that big is never a matter of personal capability or organization, but solely of motivation. Abraham had to have a motivation powerful enough to move him out of the so-called “comfort zone” – which not everyone can leave.

What could motivate someone to make such a huge move? What, in general, motivates someone to make a radical change in life?

The only motivation for such a big decision can be MEANING – that a person sees MEANING in the goal at the end of the journey. That goal must be greater than ourselves, greater than anything else in our lives, greater than comfort, greater than any trial, pain, or suffering we must endure to reach it. And that is exactly what every person, especially every Christian, is called to find in life.

Dr. Viktor Frankl spoke of this in his books – especially in “Man’s Search for Meaning,” where he recounted his time in the Dachau concentration camp. He observed people dying from hunger, beatings, disease, and the worst forms of torture – everything he too endured daily for years. He asked: Why did some survive and others didn’t, if they all endured the same suffering? Why did one fall, give up, and another keep going and survive? The answer was the sense of life – the goal strong enough to keep one alive, even through hell – hope that beyond suffering there is still something worth living for.

That goal can be family, children, but also faith in God, some belief, life philosophy, or even ideology. Whatever it is, the goal must give meaning to every step and motivate a person to endure everything just to reach it. Just as Christ’s suffering led to the Resurrection. And that personal goal must be found by everyone in life. For Christians, of course, it is God and His Kingdom – as it was for Abraham. But is that goal large and meaningful enough for every Christian?

Not all people, nor all Christians, are capable of finding such a goal. People often attach themselves to minor goals and small needs that don’t warrant any special sacrifice. These small goals are usually daily necessities, often just the instinct to survive – barely above the animal level. That’s why the concept of sacrifice has largely lost meaning in today’s world – because we lack lofty, noble goals, and Christians are not leading the world in valuing higher spiritual aims.

Of course, everyone has basic needs, and the spectrum of sub-goals can be wide. But people are often unhappy, desiring change, wanting to break free from their cycles – whether poverty, unhappy relationships, or social structures where they feel trapped. Yet they stay stuck, unwilling or afraid to change. Why?

Because even the suffocating reality they’re in satisfies some of their needs, so they give up on the rest, attaching to what they still have. And they spend their lives regretting all the other unfulfilled needs that could have brought them joy, growth, and spiritual depth. Leaving that “false comfort,” no matter how small, is only possible when greater and more meaningful life goals are embraced.

The moment that motivates someone to break from that comfort zone comes when the brain cries out: ENOUGH – I don’t want this anymore! That impulse can happen in a single moment – a sudden spark that lights a whole fire. But only when what once seemed good and beautiful is suddenly recognized as harmful, toxic, or limiting.

So a person must confront and dismantle their comfort zone – realize its futility. And this can only happen if they become aware of a higher, more meaningful goal than the shallow pleasures they cling to. That impulse, that moment of clarity, is what we Christians call: the divine calling. And every person receives it – the question is only who hears and accepts it.

That’s why spiritual growth is not universal. Many don’t want to change. The pain they feel and their occasional desire to break free are not enough to outweigh their fear of the unknown.

Gratitude is closely tied to courage and boldness – a grateful person cannot settle for small and meaningless goals. He or she has already risen above pain and the need for change, with God’s help and their own role as protagonist of their life story. That’s why such a person is filled with trust that God’s plan is better than anything they ever imagined – or what others imposed upon them.

Gratitude, then, is the same as glorifying God – offering a prayer of thanks, as in the Lord’s Prayer: “Hallowed be Thy Name.” That’s why Abraham builds an altar and offers a thanksgiving sacrifice the moment he steps into the land God shows him: “And the Lord appeared to Abram and said: Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there built he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.”

Gratitude tears down all walls – whether built by ourselves as defense mechanisms, or built by others around us. Especially the walls of generalization – believing all people and things resemble those who once hurt us. The grateful person, like every person, acts according to what they believe. The grateful person believes in God’s plan and works with Him – rising to the level of a collaborator with God.

And those who maintain their walls, reinforcing them with new beliefs that everyone is just like those who hurt them, also live according to their beliefs.

So everyone is led through life by their faith. Because faith creates a certain energy within a person. And by the words, deeds, and thoughts expressed from that energy, we clearly see what a person believes.

And we must never confuse that with religion – especially not organized religion and its administration. There are those who represent a religion or church, but whose proclaimed faith produces no real energy – or even worse, generates negative energy visible in how they impact others. And there are others who belong to no religious institution yet whose energy uplifts everyone around them.

These are the true image and icon of what it means to be Abraham’s legacy. It is a spiritual call – not a matter of blood – but of the living energy of Abraham’s faith. And whether we can claim to be part of that legacy – each of us must answer for ourselves. There is no template.