The Confession
I remember Michael Hindes once said
something along the lines of “I don’t know why people are surprised
when life gets messy. Dogs poop, alive things make a mess…life
gets messy.� Well in the weeks leading up to this past weekend, life
got messy. So when I got the offer to house sit for my boss over
Labor Day weekend, I jumped at the chance. And in light of how
things had been going I felt the best use of my time would be to
spend that weekend in isolation with God.
As I emerged out of the weekend and
started making contact with people, their big question was “What big
revelations did God speak to you?� And my response was always,
“Well, I had lost my peace but I got it back.â€� At first I didn’t
see the value in that response and felt a little disappointed that I
hadn’t come back like Moses off the mountain all shining from God’s
presence.
The Revelation
But then I remembered what I had read
in 2 Kings chapter 3 during my weekend of solitude. In this chapter
the kings of Israel and Edom decide to go to war with Moab and invite
King Jehoshaphat, of Judah, to join them. On their way out
Jehoshaphat suggests that they go to a prophet and get a word from
the Lord before they go to battle, so they stop in and see Elisha.
Now like most kings of Israel and Edom, in 1st and 2nd
Kings, these two were evil and Elisha made it pretty obvious that he
didn’t like these two at all,
“…were it not that I have regard
for Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would neither look at you nor
see you…â€�.
But nonetheless they’re kings and
they’ve come to him as a prophet of the Lord looking for a word. So
he calls for a musician to come and it’s not until the musician
begins playing that the hand of the Lord comes on Elisha and he can
discern what God is saying.
When I read that, I remembered what a
wise man once said to me.
“Peace is the potting soil of
revelation.�
And that’s when I realized, that in
those previous couple of weeks, I hadn’t heard God’s voice or felt
His presence that whole time. Because when our spirits are in
turmoil then there’s no way we can quiet ourselves enough to hear the
whisper of God. That’s why Elisha called for the musician, he knew
he couldn’t hear God’s voice while his head was shouting obscenities
at the evil kings sitting in front of him wanting God’s blessing.
The Challenge
I was reminded last weekend that
Elisha’s challenge is also my own. If I subscribe to the belief that
God still talks today, and at any given moment might have something
to say to me, then how am I going to react when a roomful of people
need peace? Am I going to be able to quiet myself to find the peace
that lies underneath? What about when I’m face to face with someone
who is in the midst of brokenness and sorrow. Will I be able to step
outside of my own brokenness long enough to hear the words that God
might be giving me for that person? That is the challenge and the
responsibility any son or daughter of God has the honor of bearing.
So maybe I should start carrying my
Ipod around with me. Because I’m sure if Elisha was around today,
he’d keep one in his pocket.
