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Elijah
Elijah Monday's Meditation: Someone Easier than Jesus?
Monday, October 18, 2010 at 12:19AM Followers of Jesus are called to look like their master. The amazing--perhaps incredible--testimony of scripture is that we should be conformed to his image. For many believers this seems too high, too difficult, just plain impossible to imagine.
“Elijah was a man just like us.” How many of us believe that? True, he was subject to uncertainty, perhaps even bouts with depression. While this similarity might resonate with us, he also miraculously multiplied food, called down fire from heaven, and raised the dead. Elijah’s life story involves a supernatural prayer life capable of changing weather patterns. Elijah was a man like us? If James seriously attempted to lower the bar by suggesting a mere human as a mentor, we are still left standing and staring at the height of the bar.
It’s a mediation worthy of the week ahead. May I suggest these questions: how are we to understand, interpret or adapt his life to our experience? What would be the response of our family or friends if we maintained that we were just like Elijah? If transformation into Christlikeness seems impossible, does Elijah’s life seem any more attainable?
Thursday’s post will return to Elijah. But in the meantime perhaps your comments can stimulate the discussion. I’m curious to read your thoughts--see you Thursday.
Reader Comments (7)
Very interesting questions to ponder. It seems to me that while I might get caught up on *how* Elijah's faith manifested itself in his life (and I might feel those are impossible acts to emulate), maybe I should be more focused on the attitude or posture Elijah took in his life. Perhaps that is something I can strive for, even if it ends up looking like something quite different.
This helps me. I keep thinking of Jesus having the deity trump card that makes me take God's Spirit a little less seriously. I mean, I have the same Spirit, but for reals... I'm no Jesus. Looking at Elijah also prepares me to learn more from Jesus since there are so many parallels in their ministries. In a sense, Elijah was a shadow of Jesus, and so he's a great person to use by way of building up our ability to imitate Jesus.
Kristin: "even if it ends up looking like something quite different." I think you can be sure it will. Our individual backgrounds (ethnicity, gender, time, and nationality) provide a guarantee that genuine faith differs from person to person. And a good thing! Otherwise we would be forced to conclude that God is after a dreary sameness in all of us. May I caution you not to dismiss the "how" too quickly, because attitude and actions are more closely linked than we might think. I'll be coming back to Elijah as a role model on Thursday.
Ed: In my experience nearly *every* Evangelical believes Jesus played the "deity trump card" every time he moved in power. Fortunately Acts 10:37-38, Philippians 2, and John 14 encourage us to reconsider the possibilities of a *human* life lived fully yielded to the Father.
Ray, the thing that struck me most, from the first few lines of this and after, is the concept that most always, no matter whom or what is our master, we "all have to serve someone" like you have stated before, and we always end up being a reflection of the thing or person that indeed has mastery over us. I think Elijah seems like a pretty decent master compared to what most of us choose these days.
Kristin: "even if it ends up looking like something quite different." I think you can be sure it will. Our individual backgrounds (ethnicity, gender, time, and nationality) provide a guarantee that genuine faith differs from person to person. And a good thing! Otherwise we would be forced to conclude that God is after a dreary sameness in all of us. May I caution you not to dismiss the "how" too quickly, because attitude and actions are more closely linked than we might think. I'll be coming back to Elijah as a role model on Thursday.
Ed: In my experience nearly *every* Evangelical believes Jesus played the "deity trump card" every time he moved in power. Fortunately Acts 10:37-38, Philippians 2, and John 14 encourage us to reconsider the possibilities of a *human* life lived fully yielded to the Father.
Ray, the thing that struck me most, from the first few lines of this and after, is the concept that most always, no matter whom or what is our master, we "all have to serve someone" like you have stated before, and we always end up being a reflection of the thing or person that indeed has mastery over us. I think Elijah seems like a pretty decent master compared to what most of us choose these days.
This helps me. I keep thinking of Jesus having the deity trump card that makes me take God's Spirit a little less seriously. I mean, I have the same Spirit, but for reals... I'm no Jesus. Looking at Elijah also prepares me to learn more from Jesus since there are so many parallels in their ministries. In a sense, Elijah was a shadow of Jesus, and so he's a great person to use by way of building up our ability to imitate Jesus.