Upheld In The Whirlwind

Breathing Is An Option 

I wonder why it is that when you are so sure that God is calling you to something that confusion sets in at a rapid pace. Ever experience that?

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about reaching for the vision of God’s call rather than trying to fill my life with my own ideas and plans. Of course, immediately, overscheduled days began to unfold and sidetrack me. There was hardly time to breathe in between.

I have a friend who says, “Breathing is an option.” I think she means to slow down and quit holding your breath. Life is too fast paced these days. Does anyone else tend to hold your breath as you rush through your days like I do?

How do I process all of it in light of reaching for the vision of God’s call?

Whirlwind

It seems to me that a whirlwind got hold of my life these last couple of weeks. I forgot which way I was going. Whirlwinds do that: they turn you every which way but up. Yep, that’s it.

As I reached for my Bible for processing help, I saw in the Old Testament that God took Elijah to heaven in a fiery chariot traveling via whirlwind. The weird part is that he was walking side by side with his apprentice prophet, Elisha (who would not leave his side for anything!), when this happened. The Scripture says that it was sudden.

I would think that Elisha felt his life suddenly turned every which way. He was a student prophet, learning how to listen to God and then interpret to the people what God said. He was reaching for the vision of God’s call on his life and his teacher was suddenly taken away in a wild and crazy moment.

Breathing Through The Call

What must Elisha have felt? “I can’t do this!” He might have cried. But the next verse says he tore his own clothes into two pieces and grasped the mantle of Elijah that fell as he left earth. Elisha had his eyes on what God was doing all the time.

Then he went to the Jordan River where he began his ministry and became a very great prophet of Israel. He did not lose sight of what God was doing even through the whirlwind that turned his life upside down in a moment. He moved right on through it to the call of God on his life—still reaching for the vision before him.

I bet he was breathing in and out, in and out, the way we are designed to do, too!

Now I must follow the example set before me and keep reaching for the call of God and not let the whirlwind distract me any further. My God is faithful. I will reach.

“Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me” II Kings 2:9b.