Daily bread

The lectionary reading today is from 1 Kings 19: 1-8.  It is a passage about the prophet Elijah who has been threatened by Jezebel so that he "fled for his life" in the wilderness.

"But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a solitary brook tree.  He asked that he might die."

I don't know that I have been suicidal in my journey with God but I have certainly been full of self doubt and discouragement at times.  I watch the pastors who are in my life now and empathize with how hard it is to stay the course, grow a church,  care for the many hurting souls, be present to your family and in a deep relationship with God.  The feelings of failure and inadequacy used to come and go if I allowed myself to feel them.

The rest of this story is that the angel of the Lord came to him and said "Get up and eat."  Twice.  Giving him the sustenance to keep on keeping on.

And that is the other part of my journey - ALL those times when God "shows up" (as if God was not already there) and gave me whatever was the daily bread that sustains.  Sometimes it was found in God's word, or a call from a friend, or that innner knowing during prayer.   And even now as I write this - the times of reflection on the past presence of God keeps me aware that God provides and really does sustain us for this journey in the present.


I pray for those today who are sitting under the broom tree - wondering about the precariousness of their life and where God is in the midst of everything.  These times are part of the journey of answering the call to serve.  Some of us - in our times of feeling stable for once need to remember that perhaps we are being called to be the angels feeding our bread of hope and life to the discouraged.

Here is a prayer from Maxine Shonk

May God be with you when you are discouraged and your hope and anticipation are diminished by the circumstances of the life around you.
At those times may you set your sights on the passion that God has awakened within you amdn may you draw courage from it.
May your embrace of God's dream once again fire that passion in you.
May the God of ENCOURAGEMENT bless you.