Burn the Ships- Lent 4

There are moments in life when you and I need to burn the ships to the past.  We do that not by literally lighting a match, but by making a defining decision.  A defining decision that eliminates the possibility of sailing back into our old world.  You burn ships named Past Failure or Past Success.  Burn ships named Bad Habit or Regret.  You burn ships named Guilt or My Old Way of Life. 

            That is what Elisha did in our Bible story this morning.  When God needed to select a new prophet for the people Israel, God selected Elisha.  Once Elisha was called by Elijah, he turned his family plowing equipment into kindling and barbequed his oxen.  It was his last supper.  He said goodbye to his old friends and old way of life by throwing a huge party. 

Burning the plowing equipment was Elisha’s way of burning the ships. He could not go back to his old way of life as a farmer because he destroyed the ‘time machine’ that would take him back.  End of Elisha the farmer.  Beginning of Elisha the prophet.  Notice, when we follow the story further in I Kings that Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah’s power… God granted that request.  Why?  Because God knew that Elisha was 200% committed.

It does not matter if you’re trying to lose weight, get into graduate school, write a book, start a business, or get out of debt.  The first step is always the longest and hardest.  And you can’t just take a step into the future… you have to also eliminate the possibility of moving backward into the past.  That’s how you go after goals.  How you break addictions.  How you reconcile relationships.  You leave the past in the past by burning the ships. 

Burning the oxen and celebrating with friends, was Elisha’s all in moment.  He was not just buying in to God’s call in his life.  He was selling out too.  Fully present and committed.  Not living the past nor the future, but in the moment.  That does not mean you and I don’t learn from our past or plan for the future, but you and I don’t live there.  Going “all in” is living as though each day is the first day and last day of our lives. 

See you at the “all in” place,

Pastor Michelle