An Excerpt from Elijah: The Ordinary Extraordinary Life

Ready set wait. A runner hears the gun and does not lift her head to her ascent. She remains in a four point sprint start waiting position. Her head bowed. Her feet firm ready to bounce. She’s in a race but does not move. It’s so counterintuitive we can hardly imagine the scene. A runner that doesn’t run? What is she waiting for? Unless she is running a different race. From a biblical perspective, waiting can be described as that space between our wounds and our healing, says Sue Monk Kidd in When the Heart Waits, our questions and our answers, our departure and our arrival, she continues. It’s the space between what is and what we hope to be. She visited a church once and the pastor called people with heartaches and problems to come forward. “God will take care of them right now”, he said. No waiting necessary. And we wonder why so few dive into to the deepest caverns of themselves to see what’s there and what is not there. The space between our real time experiences and our desired outcomes is the place God works best.

Elijah was held in a waiting stance for over three years. He was a far cry from a mountain top victory, but that did not preclude God from doing his best work in and through Elijah. With little comes much. It’s all in the stance.