From Wilderness to Mountain

Passage for the Day: 1 Kings 19: 1-9

Life is always composed of those experiences and encounters which provide both challenge to one's character and the testing of one's spirit...

To be sure, life is not only composed of experiences and encounters; it is also composed of question marks. In every life there are always questions which ought to be asked and which demand an answer. The first question of life is always: "Who am I?" and the second question is like unto it, "What am I living for?" However, when life has been lived to a level of maturity, when one's experience and encounters have led to some ups and down, some joy and some sadness... there is yet another question that every man must ask: "How did I get where I am which is so far from where I am supposed to be?" ...

[In 1 Kings 19] I see a defeated and desolate Elijah sitting under a broom tree in the solitude of his own sadness... I see an Elijah who had come to the point where he had to ask life's most difficult question: "How did I get to where I am which is so far from where I am supposed to be?"...

I may as well tell you, there are only three kinds of people in the world: those who are in the wilderness, those who have just come out of the wilderness and those who are heading into the wilderness...

In the midst of that wilderness experience, God... sent his angel to feed Elijah. "You don't have enough for your journey?"

"What journey? I'm through. I'm all washed up."
"You're not through yet, Elijah."
"I'm going to send you from where you are to where I want you to be. I'm going to send you from the molehill to the mountain... I'm going to send you from the wilderness to the mountain."

In the wilderness there is weakness, but on the mountain there is strength. In the wilderness there is loneliness, but on the mountain there is companionship. In the wilderness there is despair, but on the mountain there is hope.

- H. Beecher Hicks

editor's notes: I liked the commentary on the three types of people there are in this world. It is so true. Part of the cycle of life is the downslide into loneliness and destitution and then the emergence and survival from life's challenges. No matter what journey we're on... what pathway we've endured - God has a bigger plan for us and is taking us on that journey to where He wants us to be: THROUGH the wilderness and towards the mountains. In this passage, 1 Kings, there is some great symbolism about the wilderness as a emotionally and spiritually challenging place. Yet Elijah was not alone in the wilderness - God sent an angel to tend to Elijah in his time at the "low point" to give him strength, resolve and endurance to make it through.