Get Me Out of the Wilderness!Chikamu

17 minutes.

That’s the amount of time I have between when my wife tells me she is really hungry and when she becomes like a character from one of the Snickers “Hungry?” commercials.

If 17 minutes pass, then she’s no longer hungry - she’s now HANGRY (a mix of hunger and anger the world would be better off avoiding). She doesn’t feel good when she’s hangry and the rest of us around her don’t either.

I’m making light of our hunger here, but it’s a basic physical reality that when we don’t eat, we don’t flourish.

Yet, one of the realities we have to face in the wilderness is our hunger. The adversity of the wilderness often keeps us from fulfilling our needs because we’re simply trying to survive!.

The prophet Elijah experienced this in 1 Kings 18-19. The difference between Elijah’s experiences in chapters 18 and 19 offers arguably the most dramatic contrast of experiences one person has from one chapter to the next in the entire Bible.

In 1 Kings 18, Elijah duels with 400 false prophets, calling down fire from heaven. Those gathered witnessed God’s power on spectacular display. Later in that same chapter, Elijah prays for rain at the end of a God-directed drought and the literal floodgates open.

Yet, by midway through 1 Kings 19, Elijah has been on the run for many miles, fleeing the wrath of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.

In 1 Kings 19, we read the description of Elijah alone in the wilderness, asking God to allow him to die.

The first time I really read what happened next as an adult, I laughed and then was speechless. What God did next for Elijah was so simple, yet profound - something powerful I often overlook.

Elijah falls asleep. After a period of time passes, an angel wakes him up and tells him to eat. Food and water have miraculously appeared. Then, Elijah falls asleep again and when the angel next wakes him up, there is more food to eat.

While Elijah does begin a long journey after that (including a profound encounter with God on Mt. Sinai - the same place where Moses received the 10 Commandments), I think we could all learn something from how God meets Elijah in the wilderness initially.

First, Elijah vents his unfiltered frustration to God. This is the second most famous spiritual figure in the Old Testament (behind Moses) and he’s asking God to end his life. If you’ve even been so exhausted or overwhelmed that you prayed such a prayer, know that God sees you and is not done working in your life!

Second, Elijah takes a nap. Two actually! Sometimes, our next step of obedience isn’t prayer, Bible reading, tithing, or doing a service project. What if what God wants you to do is rest? Jesus napped in the middle of a storm. Elijah napped while a whole army was trying to find and kill him. If they can nap, you can too.

Third, Elijah ate good food. Too many of us think we are too busy to eat. If we do stop long enough to eat, we eat quickly and food of poor quality, which our body doesn’t receive well. To survive in the wilderness, we must fuel our bodies with good food. When we don’t, we become hangry like my wife and we are ill-equipped for what God has for us next.

I know this may sound simple - be honest with God, nap, and eat. But, it’s often the simple, fundamental things which get discarded when we get overwhelmed in the wilderness.

If you’re going to make it through the wilderness, you have to do the basics well and trust God with the rest. Taking care of yourself is a job you cannot delegate to anyone else. If you don’t steward yourself well, you will be unable to steward anything God puts in your hands.

Perhaps your next step in the wilderness is to close your device and lay down for a nap. Your current situation might look a lot different when you wake up.

In Day 4, we're going to look at maybe the most important question you'll face in the wilderness. How you answer this question is going to make all the difference!