Scripture:
So Elijah departed from there and found Elisha, Shaphat’s son. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him. Elisha was with the twelfth yoke. Elijah met up with him and threw his coat on him. Elisha immediately left the oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and my mother,” Elisha said, “then I will follow you.”
Elijah replied, “Go! I’m not holding you back!” Elisha turned back from following Elijah, took the pair of oxen, and slaughtered them. Then with equipment from the oxen, Elisha boiled the meat, gave it to the people, and they ate it. Then he got up, followed Elijah, and served him.
Consider:
My children are obsessed with the American Gladiators. I’ll admit to starting this obsession because obviously everything from my childhood was perfect and amazing and all the kids stuff now is terrible and awful. You know, typical old people reasoning.
In the original series there was not a lot of safety equipment. They had foam helmets, elbow/knee pads, and mouth guards with not a lot else. They’d launch themselves off bridges and crash into the gladiators waiting on the other side wearing only a lycra tank top and shorts. It took a special kind of person to wrestle someone twice your size in skin-tight biker shorts.
The modern version doesn’t allow for any of that kind of risk. The gladiators and contest are heavily padded. The games have a giant safety net underneath them, making it impossible to fall very far or very fast (though the editing makes it look like a tremendous and very rapid descent). The harnesses and wires are doubled so if one fails another is still there. The only thing they haven’t seemed to lock down is their shoes. Their sneakers always seem to be falling off.
This safety-conscious behavior makes sense from a liability stand point, but it does fundamentally change the game. The contestants are physically stronger, but more cautious. The gladiators are bigger and more athletic, but limited by the equipment and rules which hold them back. The perceived risk is higher, but the actual risk is lower. It changes the fundamentals so everyone is more cautious, more hesitant, just a little bit slower and unwilling to try risky things.
It mirrors our safety obsessed culture. Despite crime rates - and teenage pregnancy rates - going down over time, we are more scared than we’ve ever been. It’s still incredibly unlikely you will personally be the victim of random acts of violence, but the world would tell you there is a tragedy waiting to happen to you around every corner.
And it’s bled over into our relationships and personal decision making. It is wiser - and safer - we think to stay on the well worn paths which we’ve always known. If I eat boiled chicken and broccoli every night for dinner, then I won’t gain weight. It’s certainly safer than risky than fresh cooked authentic Guatemalan food from the truck outside Home Depot.
But we miss out on so much when we are afraid to risk. Elijah asked Elisha to risk everything he knew, the safety of his family home, and the certainty of the life he’d led to this point in order to follow God’s calling on his life.
Our reasonable and safety conscious response would be to stay behind the oxen, digging the same old ruts we dug last year, planting the same seed we’d grown for generations.
Elisha does the exact opposite. He not only drops his plow, he burns it for fuel. He not only stops his oxen from working, but cooks them and eats them. There is no safety net for him now, no place for him to return, no home for him to lay down his head if everything goes south. (I’m guessing on that last bit, but if you were his parents and he’d burned your cars before hitting the road, would you welcome him back?)
God’s calling doesn’t come with any guarantees or safety nets, aside from the one God promises to provide. God often asks us to move away from our stockpiles and well-worn paths onto a scarier, but more fulfilling, path following God’s directions.
It’s oftentimes scary, the place where God is leading you.. But scary isn’t bad or wrong or a misdirection. Sometimes being scared is the point, because it asks us not to lean on our own abilities or storage solutions. Our safety oriented nature always asks for a safety net, but God never promises us safety as the world sees it.
Which doesn’t mean God doesn’t help you be safe. God just provides a different kind of safety gear.
Respond:
What safety net are you holding onto which God might ask you to let Go? Are you more safety conscious when it comes to God, or more willing to risk? How might you move from one side to the other?
Pray:
God of the journey - we want to be the captain of our own ships, setting our course and dictating each step of our lives. Help us to find joy in the adventure and peace in the unexpected. When we look back on the path of our lives, remind us of the many places the road turned in a different direction than we’d planned and show us the growth we experienced along the way. Amen.
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