Intentionality

 1 Kings 19:1-15a

Elijah speaks volumes to me today. Maybe its because he's facing certain death and asks to die. Maybe its because he's humble and realizes he doesn't have all the answers, which is amazing. After all this is right after his battle with the priests of Baal and he won. He wins and then Jezebel threatens to kill him and he asks to die. Or maybe its because of the way he finally discerns God's voice, in the stillness.

We are so like this story. Can you see the similarities? We have been told so many times we are facing certain death. But instead of taking rest or being fed we rush around saying we have to go back to the good old days. I bet Elijah thought that. "Oh, for the good old days, when the prophet wins and isn't threatened with death, but instead everyone listens and follows them." Have you read this book? Name one person this really works out for. Moses who lead a grumbling and complaining people for forty years in the wilderness? David who lost most of his family to infighting and abuse? No one has it easy. We are not promised easy in this life. The old days aren't coming back. The old days are gone and it is always a new story. And we are never promised we won't face death. Its how we face it and this scripture gives us a guide. We always have to pay attention to what is given us. 

First, Elijah throws himself under the broom tree and asks to die. Instead he gets rest and then is fed. When we are faced with death as the church we run around with old ways to get the church reset. Bring back this or that thing. Because we are built around the field of dreams, build it and they will come. It doesn't work like this though. 

In rest we stop flying around, in rest, in being still we find God. We also rest into who we are. Elijah rests and finds himself. Restores himself in being provided for by God. Not relying on Elijah and his own ideas. Resting into God and God's ideas. We aren't asked to do this anywhere else in our society. Problems need a solution and rest is not one of them. In rest we find ourselves listening, in rest we can hear what God is saying. 

Next, find God. Elijah isn't rested and fed and then runs right back to it. Instead he is asked to find God. Now we know the story and it is hard for us to hear it with new ears, but listen. Where do you find God? Stop here and make a list. Where do you find God? If you don't know I'd challenge you to stay still and ask this question. Listen deeply to where you feel drawn and go there. 

So erase your mind from this story. Think of the Psalmist and where God is most found: in the thunder, in crashing waves, in all the big noisy things in creation. In breaking trees, clanging cymbals, well you get the picture. So when the readers hear this God should be in the powerful noisy things. The question I have is how does Elijah discern God is not in the others and in the stillness? He waits.

He doesn't jump around and leave the area. He waits. How easy is waiting for us? Solutions is what we are made of. Go, go, go and don't stop, stay still, wait. Waiting asks us to slow down, listen, feel if this is right. It asks us to focus ourselves. It asks us to see deeper, listen deeper, and don't go. 

This whole scripture gives us an outline for discernment. We don't make good decisions on the fly. We don't hear well when we rush. We don't listen for God when we harken back to the good old days. When Jesus appears after death no one recognizes him. Except for the wounds, those stay. We have to do this the same way. We may not be the same church we were if we listen. If we take time to hear God. If we take the initiative to intentionally rest into who we are now. We will be changed. It is the story we know though. Come and dare to discern and hear God's voice.