Elijah, a powerful prophet of God, is on the run, fleeing for his life from Jezebel. He runs as far as he is able before falling asleep beneath a lone broom bush. As he sleeps, he is awakened by an angel and told to get up and eat a meal of fresh baked bread and water. He eats and again falls back asleep, the angel later awakens him again with this instruction, "Get up and eat some more - you've got a long journey ahead of you". It is here, in this part of the story that brings me great comfort as I begin the 55th year of my life. I have been running in the journey of life for quite some time, and I do feel weary, my body does not do all that it used to do, or at least as well as it used to work. I tire fairly easily, and am less and less tolerant of conflict and difficulty.
It is easy to lose sight of God's presence when difficulties appear in our lives like a flat tire on the way to work, in the rain. Then an appliance at home breaks, a sudden illness, a past due bill, a major project falls apart at work. You get the idea, as the saying goes if bad things could happen, they will!
So when I am in the midst of the crap, my blood pressure rises, adrenalin kicks in and migraines come to roost and my positive attitude vanishes into thin air. At this point I am not looking for God's hand in my life or what she is creating, I am only concerned about being angry about my circumstance. Not good you say, well I agree but I am smack dab in the middle of the crap storm and it smells really bad and feels even worse. So it is that I come to this particular story of Elijah's Faith Journey. I am fleeing failure,and or persecution, as I journey through life. It seems that we are either running towards something or away from something or both at the same time!!!
But here this good news brothers and sisters! Through this long, tiring, trying and tumultuous faith journey I can tell you I have experienced the renewal provided by God during the lowest points of my life. Most especially in the past few years when my health took a terrible down turn. I found myself in excruciating pain from a degenerative disk disorder, with stenosis and neuropathic pain. Suffice it to say, a lot of potent drugs, surgery and long term pain management ensued.
In and through this journey we were visited with a myriad of family and financial difficulties all falling in on us at the same time. Did I say hear the good news! Well here it is, through all of this I was uplifted by the prayers of all of the disciples I have come to know over the years as well as calls and cards and personal visits and inquiries! When I returned to work many co-workers offered assistance and prayers each and every day. We came through each and every difficulty despite ourselves and our angst, especially mine. God was, is and promises to be present in and through everything, it was not until I reflected back on all of these months that I realized just how much God provided fresh bread and fresh water to nourish me and for the long journey still ahead of me.
The angel's message is very important; God is calling us into service, forever! That service has no end, we do not graduate, retire, or get discharged. We journey all the way to the day we rest in the arms of Jesus! When the angel says, eat and drink, you still have a long way to go simply means gather together as the church, eat bread and drink wine together, be renewed in God’s word and go and feed Her sheep! Know this brothers and sisters, God’s has unconditional faith in us; she knows we can, if we only will! And we can if we only try - together.
I plan to go forward with a prayer on my lips and the story of Elijah under the broom bush in my heart. God feeds and comforts me so I can continue my journey. Join me and let us go and serve the Risen Lord!
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