Burn The Ships

There are times in our lives when we face decisions that require us to move in a direction without keeping an option to turn back if things don't turn out the way we hoped.  

We have been home for 4 days now and God continues to show us His faithfulness. We have been blessed by friends who bring by food and words of encouragement. (If you are wondering about the burning ship, I'll get to it in a minute). Although Josh has tolerated this round of chemo well, the last 48 hours have been challenging as Josh's temperature has gone up a little bit more than we are comfortable with. Since Saturday night, his temperature has been fluctuating between 98 and 100.4 degrees (if it reaches 100.5 we are supposed to go to the hospital - and possibly on to Houston).

It was good to go to church Sunday, it was hard going with out Ilene (she stayed home with Josh) but it was really good to see all of our church family and to worship together with His children. Matthew Duhon lead worship and did a great job. There were 4 baptisms (from our Sunday School class) which were special and Dr. Turner sang the The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Pastor Rodney taught from 1 Kings 19 about God's faithfulness in times of difficulty. As he was teaching, I read a little further ahead in the passage; to the end of the chapter. God had told Elijah to go and anoint Elisha as a prophet of God. So when Elijah finds Elisha, and calls him to be a prophet, Elisha had to make a decision. He had to decide to either give up everything that was important in his life to him to follow God or turn his back on God and keep doing what he was comfortable with.

What Elisha decided to do, was an example of what we need to do when God calls us to be a Christ Follower. What Elisha did was a lot like the story of the explorer Cortez (the Spanish explorer) who burned his ships to prevent his men from turning back. Cortez removed any opportunity that his men may have had to leave the expedition and return to Spain. With out ships, the only direction to go was forward.

When Elisha made his decision to follow Gods call, he had to make a decision about everything he had done up to that point in his life. His entire life he had been moving in one direction but now he was faced with the opportunity to do something different.  There comes a time in all of our lives when we are faced with the choice of continuing to do things the way we have grown comfortable with, or doing something radically different. 

Sometimes we follow God with the attitude of, "well, I'll try it, but if it doesn't work out the way I want, I can always go back to farming". 

Elisha was a farmer. When Elijah found him, he was plowing the fields with his oxen and plow. Elisha may have thought to himself that if the prophet "gig" doesn't work out, there was always farming to go back to.

The Bible tells us that Elisha asked if he could go back and say good by to his family before he left to follow Elijah. We are told that when he went back, he killed the oxen and cut up the plow; using the plow for fuel, he sacrificed the oxen on the alter and had all the people in the town eat the oxen. Without a plow and without oxen to pull the plow, Elisha could not go back to farming. If at some point along the road, Elisha decided that things weren't going the way he expected, he had nothing to go back to. He had burned the ships.

As I read that passage of scripture, I started looking at my life and what God had called me to do. God sent His son to pay the price for our sins to allow us to enter into a relationship with Him. But then He did something else. He decided to leave us here (He could have taken us to heaven as soon as we became Christ Followers) as examples of His grace.

God called each and every one of us to be lights in a dark world. He strategically puts us in situations where other people can watch us and see that we live lives that are different from theirs. Along the way He supernaturally blesses us so that others are amazed by what He does.

We may be the only reflection of God that some people see, and yet sometimes we store up for ourselves "treasures" in case something doesn't work out. It might be money, or a job or even the security and safety of what we know. But God wants us to kill the oxen, cut up the plow and burn sacrifice the oxen to Him. Like Cortez did, He wants us to burn the ships so that there is no going back. The only way to go is forward, trusting Him each step.

Today we had Josh's blood drawn and he needed platelets. All morning his temperature would run up a little and then back down. When we went in to get his platelets, his temperature ran right up to that point were we might have to stay in the hospital. In frustration and fear, Josh and I sat there in the room and prayed.

"Lord, please bring down his temperature so that we can go back home tonight. We aren't ready to go back to Houston, but we will do what ever you want." Two hours later as they checked his temperature for the last time, it was 99.1 (which is low enough to go home). During that 2-3 hours stay, Josh got a chance to tell one of the nurses about how God has been faithful to us through these difficult months. The nurse commented on how good and attitude Josh had for a teenager facing such a difficult challenge.

As painful as it is sometimes to watch your hopes and dreams go up in flames, there is a peace that passes all understanding when we put our trust in Him. I don't like spending time in hospitals, but we have had more opportunity to share with people about God's faithfulness as a result of the life circumstances that we are in.

When you find yourself in a difficult situation, don't miss the opportunity to show those around you how faithful God is. If life is going great for you right now, then take the opportunity to tell others about how faithful God is. If you can't see how God has been faithful to you, then you may not be living under His protection or you haven't yet experienced His love - and its time to become a Christ Follower.

Thank you for your continued prayers. Remember, people around you are watching to see if there is really something different about you. To see if you really do live like you believe that God is faithful.