Do you ever have the sense that you are no match for the problems of our day? Alone and in a fight you didn’t want?
On one side: you. Just you.
On the other side: them. You have a list of “them” – problems, changes, offenses, bills, fears, questions, deadlines. More and more of them.,
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You versus them. You are…
outnumbered
outpaced
outdone
outgunned
outmaneuvered
out there in the tempest all alone
The odds are against you. It’s 850 to 1.
Those were the odds against Elijah. Who is this Old Testament man? And what in the world does his world have to do with you? More than you think.
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His story is all about bad odds and odd gods. Their god is odd. The odds against him are bad. And Elijah is in the middle of it all.
His story is relevant because the challenges he faced are similar to yours. The ninth century B.C. was not a good era for the Jews. King after king was corrupt to the core. Less than a hundred years earlier, King Solomon had dedicated the glorious temple in Jerusalem. Some Jews were old enough to recall the golden era of faith. They were acquainted with the blessings of a God-centered culture. But over the course of a lifetime, the people drifted. By the time Elijah appeared on the scene, Israel was six decades and four kings deep in a cesspool of death and decadence. Ungodly idol worship. Unholy clergy. Unbridled evil. Untold sordid scandals. Sound like a good era in which to live?
Sound like the era in which we live?
I’ve never been sympathetic to comments about “the good ol’ days.” I always dismissed such comments as romantic nostalgia.
Not any longer.
In a historical blink of an eye, we are shedding old beliefs and grasping for new ones. What was once unthinkable is acceptable today.
The world around us is changing.
Chaos. Anxiety. Exhaustion. Fear. The white-knuckling tumbles through this unpredictable life.
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You know them. Not because of a gymnasium of bad dudes who want you dead, but because of the economy. The threat of nuclear war. School shootings. The homeless camps in your city. The state of your country. It’s not just the bad news in the headlines that is weighing you down. It’s also the bad news at the doctor’s office, the home office, the school administrator’s office. You do your best to stay afloat, digging your oar first this way, then that. But currents pull and torrents fall, and sometimes you wonder if you’ll survive.
Is it possible for a person of faith to have unbreakable courage in today’s world?
Don’t think for a second that the worldview of a Christ follower mirrors that of a nonbeliever. We are living in a culture that has little interest in people living out their faith. But we are not without help.
As much as any person in the Bible, Elijah affirms a positive answer to these questions: Can a person maintain faith in a world that has little? When a culture belittles belief, can a believer beget strength?
Yes!
His life urges us to take a page from the playbook of LeeAdianez Rodriguez-Espada. She was 12 years old when she signed up for a 5K race in Rochester, New York. Her mom dropped her off and then drove to a parking lot near the finish line. She expected to see her daughter in about an hour.
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But an hour came and went, and there was no sign of her. Within a few moments, the mom began to panic. She contacted race organizers and police officers. Eventually, the 12-year-old was spotted. But she was not running in the 5K race. She was running a half-marathon!
Here is what happened. The young girl arrived at the starting line just after the race began. She was at the back of the pack. She settled into a rhythm. Somewhere around mile four, she began to suspect a problem. The finish line was nowhere in sight.
She asked a fellow runner to point out the end of the race. That’s when she realized her mistake. She was participating in the wrong event. The race was not five kilometers but 13.1 miles!
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You and I have a lot in common with this young runner. The race is long — longer than we thought. The challenges are many — more than we ever imagined. The struggles are numerous — so numerous that we want to quit. Step off the course and give up.
When our young friend realized her mistake, she chose to stay in the race. A police officer found her on the course of the Flower City Half Marathon. He told her that people were worried. The young runner said she couldn’t quit. The race was different from the one she’d planned and prepared for, but she wanted to finish it. She put one foot in front of the other until finally she put one foot over the finish line.
That’s all God wants of us. We need not finish first or fast or without foibles or fumbles. We just need to finish.
Do you feel as though it is you against the world? Not so, my friend. Outnumbered by foes and outdone by fear? Please reconsider. Surrounded by adversity? Perhaps. Yet, you are also encircled by divinity.
With God’s help, you can live in these uncertain times with unbreakable courage. Immovable. Determined. Square-jawed and resolved. Like LeeAdianez. Like Elijah.
