Lech Lechah

 There are three times that G-d told Avraham Avinu to walk.  1- Walk away, for your own good, to yourself, from your land, town, home 2- Walk before me and be tamim - whole/good/pure  3 - Walk to Moriah to do Akeidat Yitzchak.

These three commands to walk happened at three times in Avraham's life, the early years, midlife, and his older years.  And they each fit with the time when they happened. When he was young he was told to go from his surroundings and become himself. When a bit older he was told to build on that, not just to focus on what he needed to go away from, but to keep refining and purifying himself.  And in his later years he faced a major transformative test and reached his highest level yet.

These three commands go out to each one of us: to leave childhood behind and grown up into opurselves, to build on that as we age, and to pass the hard tests that come our way and continue to grow in our old age.

Rabbi Levi in the medrash questions which was harder, the test of the Akeidah or the test of leaving his land.  It seems like a no brainer that the Akeidah was the harder test.  Nesivos Shalom points out that leaving your cultural influences is something you have to  do every day.  The Akeidah was a harder test, but it was only one time.  The fact that the lech lechah of leaving our influences is every day, non stop, in a way, makes it the harder test.