put away all i know for tonight
and maybe i just might
learn to let it go…
take my security from me
and maybe finally
i wont have to know everything…
i am falling into grace
to the unknown to where you are
and faith makes everybody scared
it’s the unknown, the don’t-know
that keeps me hanging on and on to you
"unknown"
lifehouse
Change is inevitable. It’s the only thing that’s constant. Change happens in life all the time. And too many times, we are afraid of change. Because what if the change would be unpleasant? So we avoid it. We like the familiar. We like how things are. Change scares us. We are afraid of the unfamiliar.
We can learn from the experience of Elijah and how he faced a major change in his life. After declaring a drought as a prophecy against Ahab (or something like that), God sent him to this place called Kerith. There he was fed by ravens and drew water from a brook. He was Jehovah’s VIP (very important prophet). Life was good for Elijah. Talk about being fed by ravens with bread and steak. Talk about abundant provision of water to drink from a brook while everyone else was experiencing drought and famine. That’s pretty awesome! Until one day, something happened… The brook dried up. Just like that… his VIP life was over. He had to move out and move on. And he was even sent by God to a widow and her son whose food supply was just a handful of flour and a matching little oil. What kind of God would let his provision run out then send this prophet to a poor widow whose food supply wouldn’t even last a day? Isnt it ironic, don’t you think?
Change. It happens all the time. Sometimes when you least expect it. And it blows right in front of you uprepared. Unsuspecting. No warning shot or whatever. We don’t see it coming. So we panic. And we hide. We get scared to venture out to the unfamiliar. We cant possibly go to a poor widow whose food is running out anyway. Talk about recession…
What is your Kerith? What is that brook that you are clinging on to and almost impossible to let go? Sometimes God would require us to let go of the things that we dearly hold on to. To remind us that HE is our real and only security. That he is the source of everything we ever have and we ever desire for. To remind us that we also need to share the grace and goodness we received from him to others.
Thing is, Elijah has become reclusive in his little perfect world. With his brook and ravens. He might have forgotten for a moment that there’s a dying world outside his own recluse. Sometimes we get too attached with our own world, our own brook, that we forget there is a world outside our own. A world of hungry, hurting people. People in dry, dead places waiting for somebody to help them find the River of Life. That just as God has let us experience his love and miracles we also need to let others know of how great Jehovah is. We don’t hoard to ourselves the brook that he has provided for us. We share it. Or help others find their own brook.
Don’t get upset and alarmed over your drying brook. God gives. God takes away. We thank him just the same. Our brooks, whatever they are, are so temporal. Soon they will change. Soon they will dry up... There’s only one permanent... Eternal... Jehovah himself. Soon he will lead us to new brooks, better than the first one…
Change. We fear it. We avoid it. But sometimes, change is all we need. Sometimes change is a good thing. Sometimes, change is everything...
