“Then he came there to a cave and lodged there; and the word of the Lord came to him and God said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’” (1 Kings 19:9)
In the midst of trouble and the unknown, it is very tempting to find a quiet place and hide.
Elijah was doing just that. He had faced off with the priests of Baal and won. He had the queen Jezebel seeking his head and he felt all alone.
So, he went to a deserted place and hid. God went to him and asked him what was going on. Elijah goes on to lament his “misfortune” and his struggles. God reminds him of his duty, and the support he has been given.
It is so easy to get into a “poor pitiful me” attitude when faced with such overwhelming divisiveness and frustration.
Between COVID, riots, hurricanes, general unrest and a contentious political cycle, it would be easy to claim the victim and crawl in to a nice, safe, dry cave until the storm passes.
But, that is not what God allowed Elijah to do. In fact, God had more work for Elijah, and it was time to get out of the cave and back into the world.
If you read on you will see that there were a few more tasks for Elijah before he could rest.
I think that is the lesson for us.
Many of us have been in our safe place for quite a while. By the looks of church attendance and support, we see that many are still in hiding and still not sure of when it will be safe to come out.
But, Paul reminds us in 2 Timothy that “God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.” (Chapter 1 verse 7).
In other words, as followers of Christ, we are not supposed to sit behind closed doors, but seek out ways to bring people to Christ.
We still need to be safe; we still need to social distance, and we still need to think of others, but we can share Christ even in these challenging times.
The devil would love for us to shut down completely, but God calls us to move forward and bring people to Christ. It is possible to do this and at the same time keep your loved ones safe.
What I encourage each of you to do is contact your minister and offer to help get the church rolling again. Contact your local health departments or CDC to seek best practices for meeting.
Call people or send letters that share the love of Christ. Help with the social media part of the church. But whatever you do, make sure you keep praying, studying, worshiping and serving.
The point is, we don’t know what the next disaster is going to be or when this will end.
What we do know is we can’t keep hunkered down. We need to go about the work of the kingdom. God is with us. We can do this. It’s time to leave the cave.
I look forward to ...
Seeing you in church.
The Rev. Kent Wilfong is the pastor at the United Methodist Church, Doniphan/Neelyville.