February 11

Elijah

            Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”  The word of the Lord came to him, saying,  “Go from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. You shall drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”  So he went and did according to the word of the Lord; he went and lived by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the wadi.  But after a while the wadi dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

1 Kings 17:1-7

            Elijah was not anyone special when he started.  He merely said yes to God’s invitation over and over again.  When we first meet him in scripture, he is introduced with no titles or honors, just where he was from.  He obeys God and delivers a message to King Ahab that is ridiculous in its audaciousness: No rain would fall until God decreed it through Elijah himself.  Israel had become corrupt and divided, splitting its allegiance between the God that had delivered them from slavery and Ba’al, the Phoenecian deity of fertility, agriculture and…rain.

            Elijah did as the Lord instructed and then was told to go hide in the wilderness.  It was not safe to go home for all the might of the palace was being expended to hunt down and eliminate him.  So Elijah hid and saw God miraculously take care of him.  Birds brought him food multiple times per day.  He had fresh water from the river Cherith.  It may not have been the life that he had imagined for himself as a boy, but his needs were being met and he was being faithful to the work that God had called him to; a work, by the way, that was going to change his country and the world.

            Then the river went dry.

            It is a common assumption that if we follow God and obey what he calls us into, life will be good.  And by “good,” what we mean is, “there will not be struggles…our daily needs will be met…we’ll have good health and enough money and a good job.”  That is not what I see in scripture.  At all.  But it is still a dream that we hold on to. 

            When I got married, I was terrified of the idea of becoming a father.  I was uncomfortable around children.  I found teenagers annoying and aggravating and was always scared that I would break babies.  About a year into our marriage, God began speaking loudly about the idea of having a child.  Through dreams and prayer times and sermons and scripture readings He was incredibly clear about the call to become a father.  My wife and I were scared, but we were faithful and said yes and had a son.

            My assumption was that since God had called me into this adventure, it would be good.  Not just good, but perfect.  My son would be healthy and brilliant and deeply spiritual.  He would look to me for love and wisdom and as he grew, I would grow and we would both be better because of our relationship.  We even gave him a middle name that was one of my heroes from the bible to lean on as he built upon our spiritual legacy.

            When we found out that he had autism, it was like Elijah’s river running dry.  I had been faithful and seen several hard days because of it, but we were surviving with our hopes and dreams intact.  Now the deal was shifting and I did not know what we were going to do.  It was a staggering feeling.  We knew that God was a worker of miracles and that He had provided for us in amazing ways…and at the same time we knew that this was a game-changer and the results of our faithfulness were destined to look much, much different than I had assumed.

            Has my son grown?  Yes.  Have I grown?  Dramatically.  Is there deep love shared between the two of us?  Yes.  Have I built a thriving network of college fellowships that are sending out dozens of missionaries each year and bringing reconciliation to my state and raising up my son to take the reigns of that ministry?  No.  That dream has passed away.  Sometimes, even when we are faithful, our dreams and expectations have to be given up.  God went on to provide Elijah with an even better situation than living by a river and being fed by birds, but the river had to dry up first.

              

A moment to reflect:

What dreams have you had to let go of?  What is God giving you to replace them?