hiding in the cave.

We've all felt it. We have felt the overwhelming sensation of defeat, hopelessness, the feeling and thoughts saying "You can't go on. Just give up." If there is anyone who hasn't felt anything of that nature, it is because they have been hiding away all their life. hmm...I hope you haven't been hiding. However, it's tempting. It's tempting to give up and hide.

The expression "the straw that broke the camel's back", we can all relate to it. It's odd how true that proverb is. Personally, I'll have many things in my head that I'm nearly constantly processing. I let things build up, thinking "It's OK I can handle it...", then BOOM. One little card is dealt and set on the top of it all, and the entire card-pyramid comes tumbling down.

Is it hopeless? Can I pick up all the pieces again, and puzzle them all together...again?

Look at Elijah in 2 Kings 19. It says Elijah ran for his life! He even left his side-kick behind. He ran and took shade under a tree and prayed he would simply die! Then he slept, and slept, and slept (I'm sure, in hopes he'd wake up, dead, and in heaven). An angel kept waking him up to feed him, but he would eat and go back to sleep. Then he got up and kept running away for 40 days, until he found a cave to hide in!

Why did he do all this? The queen had threatened to kill him. Sounds major. HOWEVER, in light of the events he had just observed...a death threat should have seemed ridiculous to him!! In the previous chapter, Elijah had challenged 450 baal prophets in a "dual" so to speak, in front of the eyes of an entire nation! The baal prophets prayed to their gods to bring fire down on their offering, but got nothing. Elijah asked God to send down his fire and it "burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the (surrounding) trench." Then the entire nation listened and obeyed Elijah's command to them. THEN Elijah told the king that rain was coming (after a difficult and long time of famine)...and guess what. The rain came!! In the midst of this heavy rain that's coming? The king is on his chariot trying to get out of the way before the heavy storm, and what does Elijah do? Tuck in his cloak, the power of God comes on Elijah, and he OUTRUNS THE CHARIOT OF THE KING all the way to another town.

After Elijah witnesses and is the star player in the power of God in these multiple occasions, he should be virtually fearless and full of confidence. Yet one threat from someone, and he runs, prays to die, sleeps, continues to run, and hides.

The best part of the whole story really lies in chapter 19, which you need to read fully for yourself.

God meets him in the cave (because, let's be serious...there's no hiding from God).
"And the word of the LORD came to him: 'What are you doing here, Elijah?"
I wasn't there and can't say for sure, but in my imagination I can hear those words coming from God with such, compassion. Yes there may be a sternness as well, but I hear a compassion and love. If you read this chapter you'll see, God shows up, in a more powerful way than the fire over the sacrifice. He meets Elijah and says get up and go this way I have planned for you. There is hope.

THERE IS HOPE.