Hear the word of the Lord:
But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness,
and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree.
He asked that he might die:
"It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life,
for I am no better than my ancestors."
Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep.
Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him,
"Get up and eat."
He looked, and there at his head was a cake
baked on hot stones, and a jar of water.
He ate and drank, and lay down again.
The angel of the Lord came a second time,
touched him, and said, "Get up and eat,
otherwise the journey will be too much for you."
He got up, and ate and drank;
then he went in the strength of that food
forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.
At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there.
For many reasons, Elijah is done.
The depression that has plagued him for so many years
has nearly mastered him, nearly become his god.
Which is ironic considering Elijah’s record on idolatry.
Yet still he can hear and respond to the voice of God’s
messengers; he rises to eat and to drink.
Sometimes life with God brings great power
and passion and joy – and then at other times
that same life brings the need for perseverance
and obedience and faithfulness, all in the face of
the great grief that we share with God
when we walk with God.
When we see the world the way God sees it,
when we think thoughts that are like God’s thoughts,
when we feel feelings that mirror our Master’s,
then there are going to be days of great joy,
and days of great grief.
However much grief God expects us to endure,
his awareness, and his share is infinitely more.
yet he keeps moving toward the end of the story.
On the tough days, even on the toughest days,
that is precisely what we need to do.
Keep moving toward the end of the story,
because that is where the real purposes of God,
and blessings of God, and joy of God
are going to be revealed to us,
and experienced by us.
We won't have to ask when we've come to
the end of our story; we'll know.
Keep moving toward the end of the story.
Ron
1 Kings 19:4-9 – NRSV
