Of all the wild prophets, Elijah set the bar pretty high. Elijah was kind of a head-case. He did some great things for God, even got a get-out-of-death card. But there's a scene or two where he goes all narcissistic on us and thinks it's all about him.
It's not just that it happens, but when it happens that surprises me. It's right after he defeated 450 Baal prophets in a God-contest. Yeah, he won. He should be high-fiving the king or chest-bumping other prophets.
Instead, we find him all alone on a mountain, wanting to die. When asked why, he said he was the only one following God. He said he had done all he could do. He said he was done. What's admirable is the passion he put into what he did. But he misses the point here, if only for a moment.
Elijah assumed he was all alone. But God had 7,000 just like him.
When your count is off by 7,000, that's a pretty big deal. Try it sometime. Mess up your checkbook by 7,000 and see how your spouse reacts. Better yet, see how the bank reacts. This isn't a small oversight. This is an error.
It's our error. We make it when we assume no one can empathize with us because no one has ever been hurt like we have. We make it when we assume no else has a busy schedule quite like ours. We make this mistake when we assume that our experience is unique and the factors will never change. And we make this mistake when we want to quit rather than look for someone to team up with.
We do this relationally. We're way off on our math and end up in embarrassing situations because of it. Why didn't we ask for help. We assumed we were alone.
But we're not alone.
It's not just that it happens, but when it happens that surprises me. It's right after he defeated 450 Baal prophets in a God-contest. Yeah, he won. He should be high-fiving the king or chest-bumping other prophets.
Instead, we find him all alone on a mountain, wanting to die. When asked why, he said he was the only one following God. He said he had done all he could do. He said he was done. What's admirable is the passion he put into what he did. But he misses the point here, if only for a moment.
Elijah assumed he was all alone. But God had 7,000 just like him.
When your count is off by 7,000, that's a pretty big deal. Try it sometime. Mess up your checkbook by 7,000 and see how your spouse reacts. Better yet, see how the bank reacts. This isn't a small oversight. This is an error.
It's our error. We make it when we assume no one can empathize with us because no one has ever been hurt like we have. We make it when we assume no else has a busy schedule quite like ours. We make this mistake when we assume that our experience is unique and the factors will never change. And we make this mistake when we want to quit rather than look for someone to team up with.
We do this relationally. We're way off on our math and end up in embarrassing situations because of it. Why didn't we ask for help. We assumed we were alone.
But we're not alone.
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