Title: When Life Feels Bleak Press 4, 6, 3
Text: I Kings 19:1-15
Thesis: God shows up “in” the chaos.
The message on the answering machine at a mental health clinic says, “Hello, and welcome to the mental health hotline.
• If you are obsessive-compulsive, press 1 repeatedly.
• If you are codependent, please ask someone else to press 2 for you.
• If you have multiple personalities, press 3, 4, 5, and 6.
• If you are paranoid, stay on the line and we will trace your call.
• If you are delusional, press 7 and your call will be transferred to the mother ship.
• If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a voice will tell you which number to press.
• If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.
• If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.
• If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.
• If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.
• If you have low self-esteem, please hang up. All operators are too busy to talk to you.
• If you are depressed, it doesn’t matter which number you press, no one will answer anyway.”
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 1 in 10 American adults or approximately 21 million people suffer from depressive illness ever year.
(www.helpguide.org/mental/depression_signs_types_diagnosis_treatment..htm)
21 Million Americans feel hopeless, sad, discouraged and empty. Many are unable to experience pleasure and nothing is of interest anymore. Some loose weight while others gain weight. Some suffer from insomnia and others hypersomnia. They may feel physically drained, worthless, guilty, and distracted. Depressed people may have trouble making decisions, be angry or frustrated by little things or they may be unresponsive to anything.
Life, from the perspective of a depressed person, can feel very bleak. I suspect that the main character in our story today was just such a person. This week I spent some time thinking about what precipitated Elijah’s downward spiral into despair?
Elijah was a career prophet… he was God’s spokesman to the most powerful person in the kingdom, who just happened to be a king who made it his practice to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord. The bible says that he did more to arouse the anger of the Lord than any of the kings before him. I Kings 16:30-33 Elijah’s job was to go head to head with the king.
Elijah was the man who broke the news to King Ahab that his kingdom would be ravaged by drought and famine for the next several years.
Elijah was the man who lived a meager, subsistence existence as the guest of a destitute widow woman and her son for three years. I Kings 17
Elijah was the man for whom the king had put out an all points APB for his arrest. The bible says that the king searched every nation and kingdom on the earth from end to end to find him. I Kings 18:10
If this were a contemporary story, Ahab would have enlisted the help of Dog, the Greatest Bounty Hunter in the World… He would have hired “Dog” Duane Lee Chapman and the posse, to track Elijah down.
Elijah was the man who challenged the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah to a spiritual duel of sorts. They had what may be likened to the Shoot Out at the O.K. Corral on Mt. Carmel, which culminated with Elijah calling down fire from heaven to, as Elijah put it, “…prove that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant.” I Kings 18:36
Elijah is the man who called for and orchestrated the execution of all of the false prophets of Baal and Asherah…
Elijah is the man who prayed that the drought would end “as a heavy wind brought in a terrific thunderstorm,” he ran ahead of Ahab’s chariot all the way back to the city of Jezreel. I Kings 18:45-46
Elijah is the man who was then the recipient of hate-mail from Queen Jezebel who vowed, “May the gods also kill me if by this time tomorrow I have failed to take your life like those whom you killed.” I Kings 19:1-2
As our story unfolds this morning, Elijah, afraid and fearing for his life, flees into the wilderness. At this moment in his life, Elijah seems to loose all sense of perspective as he perceives his prospects as being pretty bleak.
I. Life can feel very, very bleak.
He sat down under a broom tree and prayed, “I have had enough, Lord. Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” I Kings 19:1-4
• Elijah was afraid. I Kings 19:3
• Elijah was alone. I Kings 19:4a
• Elijah was isolated. I Kings 19:4b
• Elijah was exhausted. I Kings 19:4c
It is a rare person who manages to blow through life without ever feeling a bit overwhelmed by marriage and family problems, work related problems, money problems, or health problems. It is a rare person who manages to breeze through life without feeling the heaviness of global conflicts and environmental concerns. It is a rare person who manages to escape feelings of guilt, shame, or embarressment. It is a rare person who is never laid low by the loss of loved ones. It is a rare person who has never felt despair.
The headline on the front page of the Denver Post this morning read, Judge’s death rocks colleagues. Denver judge Larry Mansanares committed suicide on Friday… his collapsing career, facing possible prison time, and the media scrutiny of his personal life was just to dark and bleak a place for him. (Denver Post, June 24, 2007)
Elijah felt like he was in a very dark place and he wished he could just die and be done with it. Given the nature of his prayer, one might wonder if Elijah would have welcomed the assistance of Dr. Kevorkian in bringing his misery to an end.
The next verses give us a clue to why it is we sometimes come to the end of our rope, so to speak. Often when we fall into darkness and despair, it is because we are physically, emotionally, and spiritually depleted. However, when we are depleted we do not need Dr. Kevorkian, we need some rest!
II. When we are exhausted, the first thing we need is rest and refueling.
Then he lay down and slept. And, as he was sleeping an angel touched him and told him, “Get up and eat!” [After sleeping some more] The angel of the Lord came again, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat some more…” I Kings 19:5-8
We typically pray that God will take us out of our depressing circumstances… but it seems that in this case, God met Elijah in the middle of his circumstances and gave him exactly what he needed.
• Elijah needed rest, so he was given some much needed sleep time.
• Elijah needed refreshment, so he was given some much needed food for refueling.
In our text an angel of the Lord came to Elijah and gave him back to back naps and back to back meals. God gave him the energy he needed to go on.
A few months ago an acquaintance told me about an incident that had just occurred in an exchange between him and his wife. He said that he could not believe what happened when she had reminded him that he needed to do something he needed reminding to do… He said, “I swore at her and stormed out of the house.” He said, “I never swear… I have never sworn at her.” He said, “I have never left the house in a rage… never!” He said, “I don’t know what came over me. I have never reacted like that in my life.”
When we can no longer cope, it is because our coping resources are exhausted.
We understand the concept of the fuel gauge on our cars… last Sunday evening after our Starbuck’s date Bonnie and I went for a little drive. The miniature gasoline pump icon on my dash was lit, and I wondered out loud if I should get some gas. I wasn’t sure if what we were going to look for was at 120th and I-25 or 104th and I-25… in either case, I didn’t feel like running out of gasoline. Bonnie leaned over and looked at the gauge and said, “Oh, we have lots of gas.” And apparently we did… but I didn’t waste anytime before getting refueled on Monday morning because I knew it was only a matter of a time before the tank would be empty.
When your tank is empty… the car stops moving. You can crank the engine over until your battery dies a long and painful death. You can get out and push it until you drop dead from exhaustion. But, the fact of the matter is, when you have exhausted all of the gas, when all of your fuel resources are depleted, the car cannot go on.
When we hit the wall, like Elijah hit the wall, we need to rest and refuel our physical, emotional, and spiritual selves by letting God give us rest, refreshment and spiritual renewal.
As we near the end of our story, over a month has passed. Elijah is camping in a cave on Mt. Sinai when God showed up.
III. We can expect that God will show up when things get chaotic.
A mighty windstorm hit the mountain, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And, after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper… I Kings 19:9-13
Elijah had been on the lam for over a month. He had crashed under a broom tree in the wilderness. He had rested and ate. He had traveled on some forty days and nights, and now he was camping out in a cave as far from Queen Jezebel as he could get.
God asked him, “Elijah, what are you doing here?” Why have you come to this place? Why are you in your present state of mind? What are you doing here?
Elijah speaks to God and tells him that he feels utterly alone… that he feels like he is the last of the Mohicans. “I alone am left and now they are trying to kill me.” I Kings 19:10
And then, as if the chaos he felt within himself was not sufficient, a mighty windstorm hit the mountain causing rock slides. And then the mountain began to tremble as the mountain was caught in the grip of an earthquake. And finally the mountain sky was filled with the sound of thunder and the flashes of lightning.
Then the gentle whisper of God came to him again and asked, “Elijah, what are you doing here? You need to go back the way you came.” God said, “Elijah, you need to get back into the game!”
God wanted Elijah to return to the world of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Elijah was to return to the world of paganism. The solution was not to remove Elijah from his circumstances or the circumstances from Elijah.
The way we deal with our inner and circumstantial chaos is neither escapism or deliverance… it is through rest and renewal.
Another prophet wrote, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you! Only in returning to me and waiting for me will you be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength…” Isaiah 26:3 and 30:15
If you are depressed, it does matter, press 4, 6, 3 and listen for the still small voice of God… for it is in quietness and trust that you will find strength.
