Elijah moments…

PART ONE:  Elijah moments…

If you ever ask me my favorite character in the Bible, I am quick to say, Elijah! My fondness for Elijah began about 15 years ago when I was looking for a topic to teach in ladies Bible class.  I felt the Lord led me directly to my kindred spirit. I identify so much with this prophet of old. Every few days, I tend to smile and call an event, “an Elijah moment”. Let me share some of my epiphanies in my journey with the man whose name in Hebrew means “my God is Yahweh.”

           I have been in my school community for about 30 years as a parent, teacher, and librarian.  I currently have served in my role as a principal for fourteen years. I am an Arkansas girl who has developed deep Louisiana roots.  If you know anything about being a Principal these days, you know conflict is my basic job description. I hate conflict.  As a child, I became a pleaser, a rule-follower, a perfectionist. I avoided conflict at home, in relationships, in church, in my faith walk. Conflict was uncomfortable for me. The Lord had different plans for me.

When we think of Elijah, we think of him confronting the priests of Baal, calling down fire on them, speaking the uncomfortable truth to Ahab and Jezebel, raising the dead child, being compared to John the Baptist, and his mentoring of Elisha as the next prophet.  I want to concentrate on one portion of his story. Elijah during the great famine was fed by a raven and a stream. After a time with his Lord, the stream dried up and the bird brought no more flesh. The LORD commanded him to travel to Zarephath and find a certain widow. He called to her to bring him water and cake. She did but told him she had only enough oil and flour left for a meal with her son and she expected to die soon after it was gone.  Here is the text of what happened in I Kings 17:

13 And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. 14 For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’” 15 And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. 16 The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah. (ESV)

I paraphrase it this way, “For says the Lord, God of Israel, our flour and oil shall not run out when we give what we have for the kingdom”.  Every time I think my personal cupboard of strength or wisdom or patience is wearing thin, I go back to this verse. When I serve other people, He refills me. Often in conflict, in custody hearings, in angry parent conferences, in dealing with childhood sexual abuse, in the midst of grief and pain, in life-changing diagnosis, He provides me with what  I need. When I trust and believe that every situation that passes through my life is a moment to do HIS will, HE shows up mightily.

I have so many moments that I can look back on that are what this Southern girl calls “knee-deep” in the Holy Spirit and coated with flour and oil. He fills my mouth with words and courage that I honestly don’t have in my heart or mind.  When I give everything, HE has already replenished my sustenance for the day. When I face conflict, my cupboard is full of HIM. I shall not want for oil and meal. I only have to quit trying to fill my own cupboard and keep serving others. I have this quote on my desk, “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve”. Albert Schweitzer”.  I think Schweitzer knew about the oil and flour.

I only have to be still and allow HIM to do my proverbial grocery shopping.  My cupboard is full and I anxiously await the day when the LORD returns for me to hunger no more.

I wish I didn’t have to write Part Two of this blog. There’s this plant called a broom tree…

Maranatha,

Jayme