Elijah Hid And I Tried To Do The Same

1 Kings 19:1-18. 

This haunted me for two weeks, but let me give why the reason why. A few months ago my youth elder asked me and a few of our youths to help with the our church's kid ministry and teach them. Now just at the mention of speaking in front of people makes me shake, so when she told me I literally ran away (this is true I went to the other side of the church) and her being the way she is, she pushed me to do it, in the best way possible. I stopped thinking about it until two weeks ago when she handed me a brown envelope and goes "Here's your class" I nearly had a heart attack. There were many text messages sent to her about being panicked (you can ask her shes still laughing). One of the reasons why I started blogging with Michelle was because I knew some of these words and thoughts were going to help us for later, maybe they didn't apply to our life right now when we were writing them but they will some day. My someday came and two posts stood out, both by Michelle, Fear....A Trust Issue? and Breaking Up With Your Comfort Zone for these post I am forever grateful.

But what really made me chuckle was what I had to talk about and that was 1 Kings 19:1-18 "Elijah flees to Horeb to hide from Jezebel". Oh the irony! There I am trying to hide and run away from something that scares the life out of me and there's Elijah hiding from someone who scares the life out of him, we might as well be besties. Those two weeks for me were panic weeks, I would sit and stare at those bible pages and imagine talking to kids and I would shake. Yes kids are scary to me, I think it is far more important to preach to them than to older people (only by a little though), they have the future literally in their hands and here I am having a part in this child's development, I get to shape their history and I want to do the best job possible and at the same time I want to hide.

He replied, "I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your alters, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too" 1 Kings 19:10

The word zealous means to do something with passion. Elijah had served God so zealously to the point that someone wanted to kill him. I laughed because he had a reason to hide and I'm here hiding from kids. It was God's way of showing me that if he can do it, of course I can do it too. Elijah tried to hide and die and I was trying to do the same (expect the dying part). I was trying to find my cave and just sleep in it. Just like God woke up Elijah, he also woke me up with "What are you doing here"(1 Kings 19:9) and I couldn't answer him the way Elijah did because I wasn't serving him zealously but what I could say was, "I will learn to serve you zealously like Elijah, it is my turn now." And so I stopped panicking and started writing my class for Sunday morning. The outcome was great. I sat down with the kids around a table, we discussed about Elijah and God and how he will always provide for you when you are scared and trying to hide. We talked, we laughed and we drew. It was lovely and I am so glad I came out of that cave to serve Him zealously, I have the honour to be part of their development, what more can I ask for? God is too good. Now I leave you now with the verse the kids have to memorize for homework:

"You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of deliverance"- Psalms 32:7

He surrounds you with songs of deliverance!

With Love & Grace- Diana C