Consistently Inconsistent

Life ebbs and flows. It spans the highest of mountains and the lowest of valleys. Some days leave us feeling on top of the world; others at the pit of despair. Circumstances dictate far too many aspects of our lives, and often direct our ascent to joy or fall into anguish.
Many of us neglect to realize that events themselves are neutral. Situations happen and we run into a myriad of them every day without escape. But they only force reactions; they don’t mandate them.
In other words, we control the rudder that directs our state of mind through the murky waters of life. We choose to stand or fall, turn right or left, fight or retreat. Life throws us tidal waves and sunshine, but only we determine how either will impact us.
Sunshine and clear skies rarely throw us into pits of depression, but tidal waves and ravaging storms do. We’re so finicky. When life sails smoothly, we bask in joy and our light hearts bounce with glee. When life stumbles upon rough waters, we look for someone to blame and throw pity parties until the storm passes.
God usually finds Himself the recipient of our fits. We wrestle with, celebrate, blame, praise, question, and shake our fists at Him depending on our circumstances; though the volume of our communication with Him normally reserves itself for stormy waters.
The greater the storm, the louder our voices of protest resound. Or in an attempt to get back at Him we succumb to silence, erroneously thinking our silence can manipulate Him into doing what we want. Either way, God bears the brunt of our blame, when He should be the recipient of our praise.
One man in the Old Testament whose life attests to these truths is Elijah. God anointed Elijah as His prophet and ordained his life to accomplish mighty purposes for His name. Probably the most famous account of Elijah’s life reflects the throw down at Mt. Carmel between God (with Elijah) and Baal (with his prophets).
God disintegrates any possibility of Baal’s deity through a display of unhindered glory—thrusting fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice Elijah prepared. (Baal’s prophets failed to call down fire after hours of begging and slashing themselves with knives to appease him). Everyone acknowledges God as Lord and Elijah experiences a spiritual high that puts most of ours to utter shame.
The high continues with Elijah’s call of rain to end after years of drought. Being in God’s sweet spot for your life renders a sense of spiritual euphoria beyond imagination. Elijah experienced his sweet spot to degrees hardly imaginable to us. Sailing through his life then resounded perfection—far beyond mere mediocrity and pleasantness.
With such a backdrop, chapter 19 of 1 Kings surfaces. King Ahab (the one whose god Baal just got pummeled by God Almighty on Mt. Carmel) recounts the event to his wife, Jezebel, who’s not thrilled with the news. Infuriated, she sends a messenger to Elijah to communicate a promise of death. Elijah receives the news (remember, he’s just experienced an intense spiritual high) and reacts to Jezebel’s threat contrary to expectation.
He was afraid and arose and ran for his life. (1 Kings 19:3a)
Instead of standing firm and claiming God’s protection, Elijah freaks out. He wines, complains, and sinks so far as to beg God to take his life. He arrogantly believes that he’s the only one left who believes in God and decides life isn’t worth living anymore. To wit, the depth of his pity party matches the height of his spiritual euphoria just a couple of days before.
Elijah’s story encompasses the schizophrenia of our relationships with God more than we’d like to admit. When life overflows with sunshine and peachiness, our walks with God are sweet and satisfying. But when life ushers a storm into our presence, we turn abruptly and throw parties of pity unmatched by Hollywood’s most dramatic.
Does God change with circumstances? Do His attributes mutate with the ebbs and flows of life happenings—good and bad? Hardly! God alone remains consistent, tried, and true. He alone secures us in His truth as our Rock and Strong Tower. But the manifestation of His power into our minds depends on what we choose to believe.
Elijah, like so many of us, accepted God’s power, truth, and love when life steered according to plan. But the second events changed, his reserve did too. He (consciously or not) traded belief in God for belief in himself—he doubted God’s ability to save and decided running away was his best bet.
The circumstances changed, but God didn’t. Elijah changed his mind; yet God refused to change His accordingly. Despite Elijah’s schizophrenic tendencies, God patiently wooed him and reestablished His anointing on Elijah’s life.
And behold the Lord was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing…”                                1 Kings 19:11-12
He loves us. His love reaches far beyond our capability of screwing up. He loves independently of our response, and His comfort engulfs us even if we can’t recognize it. Life’s about Him, not about us. We do ourselves a favor to recognize that and interpret circumstances through the clear lens of His sovereignty rather than the broken, sin-saturated lenses of this world.
He works out His gospel through both smooth sailing and murky waters. Our lives exist to extend the glory of His gospel, and we only embrace such a calling when we realize its grand scope in comparison to our frail lives. Get out of your box and embrace His. Let His gospel dictate your reactions to life’s circumstances, not the other way around. And never doubt in the dark what God shows you in the light.