Burn the Plow...

1 Kings 19: 19-21 "So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. "Let me kiss my father and mother good-by," he said, "and then I will come with you." "Go back," Elijah replied. "What have I done to you?" So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant."

Elijah the great prophet has just come down from Mount Carmel where he heard God whisper his name. He had cried out to the Lord that he was all alone. The Lord says no you are not alone. I have a successor for you,. Elijah finds Elisha wealthy and plowing his fields. He is about the work that he has always been about. Yet, as soon as Elijah shows up, Elisha knows what he is to do.  He has to give up his old life to be who God wants him to be.  He is shocked and afraid, but he burns the plow and his oxen. He declares, "I will not go back."  It is what Jesus spoke of when he said in Luke 9 :"Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family."Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." Elisha had wanted to say goodbye to his family but at the same time was willing to walk away from that life. He wanted to be the person God wanted him to be. It didn't take much explanation for him to understand what Elijah was saying when he threw that cloak around his shoulders.

Spending a week chewing on what a legacy is I can relate to Elisha.  I want to accept the mantle thrown on my shoulders.  I am petrified as to what it all means. The only thing I am certain of is that I can never go back to my old way of life. In Christ I am a new creation. That means 100% that I am about HIM and what he wants of me. Whatever, that might mean.

At one point this week I was asked what my passion is.  My heart is to see families in the city made whole. What does that mean I was asked?  Well, as I have chewed on it I understand that means Mom and Dad living at home with all of their children. This is a family that is fully in love with Christ. Things like water, electricity, food and shelter are all so taken care of that they are not even a thought. This is a family that shines Christ's love to all that surround them.  This does not mean that trials do not come, but when they do there is a hope that stands firm.  The children have access to a a quality education, with teachers and a system that has not and does not give up on them. The children in the family dream of what they will be when they grow up and there are no limits on what they can be. There is absolutely nothing that holds them back: race, economic station, nothing. My dream would be that these children would grow in Christ and would marry one spouse and be married for a lifetime. All of their children would grow and know the Lord with one father and one mother.  There would be jobs available for the parents.  They would never feel desperate enough to bottle their soul and sell it on a street corner or in a dark ally in any way. That the heart of the city would no longer be filled with a rage of injustice that comes out in all the wrong ways.   Instead, that at the end of my life I would shed tears of joy at the changes that I see. There would be a transformation because perfect love chases away all fear.

You are thinking this dream is too big.  If I have really burned my plow then it is too small. Because, it is what God has called me to do. There is nothing that I can do any differently. I have to step out and say that God has not called me to a regular life. It is crazy and I just might have to have some faith that I didn't know was possible. The Spirit within me must be the well from which I draw my strength.

This week I came to understand what legacy really is.   My mother was raised by her Aunt.  She is who I am named after. I called her "Grammie."  Her life was spent at the farthest ends of rural Maine as a public health nurse.  She met the poorest of the poor and made sure that they had medical care.  When others were saying that this set of people were too poor, too unreachable, too "out there," she stood in the gap for them. It took seven people to take over her route when she retired.  Her face was set like flint on bringing Christ to those that needed His light.   When I put it in those terms, I began to understand just a bit what legacy really is.  I am her name sake. A name that means, "Remember Grace."     SHe burned her plow and never looked back.

I pray that the Lord will give me the strength to never look back. 

"I prayed for 20 years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs." Frederick Douglas