WE ARE NOT ALONE

“diyin bahashnee” were the words he taught me.  Ever feel like an outsider? Like you just do not quite fit in? like you are different? This could be a very good thing!  But, it can be depressing and confusing.  God did say it is not good to be alone, although solitude has its time and place also.  But, I am talking about that left-out feeling a believer gets when he thinks the whole world is dark and godliness has become a joke.  For me, sometimes this comes after a mountain top experience, for some odd reason.  Other times, it comes on slow but forcefully, like sliding into a tar pit.

Elijah suffered this after his God-glorifying victory on Mt. Carmel.  ((1Kgs.18)  Hundreds of false prophets had just lost the truth contest.  The false prophets had cried all morning long for their gods to answer them.  They had wailed, screamed, mutilated their bodies – but silence was the only reply they got.  Then Elijah prepared his offering and humbly, but confidently, called out in prayer.  Heaven’s fire consumed the offering to the LORD, the wood on the altar, the altar, the water in the trench around it!   The people immediately acknowledged what their hearts surely already knew -- “When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The LORD—he is God! The LORD—he is God!” (1Kgs.18.39)  The false prophets were put away.

And, yet, in the next chapter we see Elijah dejected and depressed – (19.9) There he went into a cave and spent the night.    And the word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (10) He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”  After a great show of His power, God comes to Elijah in a small voice.  And he tells him, (19.18) Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”

Sometimes I feel like Elijah.  At work, the conversation can get extremely vulgar and ungodly.  Even some churchmen join in the fray, occasionally.  Sometimes I even snicker at the nonsense.  I begin to feel like just Lot whose soul was vexed by his townsmen.  (2Pet.2.6-8)  I find my faith failing and my joy flagging.  I lose sight of the Author and Pioneer (Heb.12.2) and focus on the darkness, losing my way.  Like Peter, I begin to sink into the waves upon which I have focused, instead of the Master, who quells it all with a “Peace, be still”!  (Mk4.39)  Instead of looking up, I look down, and I look back.

Recently, I was having one of those days.  A rough, tattooed, tobacco-spitting, construction worker approached me (I am thinking, where is this going?!) and apologized for any bad language he might have used around me.  His co-worker had informed him that I did his marriage ceremony a few years back.  “I’m sorry; I’m just a construction worker; and, I did not know you were a preacher…”  “Relax, my friend…I’m used to it…” I told him.  

Now get this – the next day he approaches me again, and says, “let me teach you some new words.” (OK, now what?!)  “diyin bahashnee” is written on the corner of a box he has torn off.  He explains – “diyin” = God, and “bahashnee” = praise!!  (in Navajo)  He explains that he has been on 8-9 mission trips to a Navajo reservation.  WE ARE NOT ALONE!  He and I have become good friends, fellow-believers.  When we meet, we smile, knowingly!  God sent him to encourage me in my pity party.  (I kept the box top)

Jesus said that he would not leave us as “orphans” (Jn.14.18) but send his Spirit;  and he promised that he would “always be with us, to the end of the age” (Mt.28.20)  Never forget this.  And a powerful way he reminds a down disciple of this truth, is another believer who comes alongside and lifts him up.  We are not alone.  Look around and be a Barnabas.  Let the Lord use you to help another struggler.  And, “diyin bahashnee”!

GOD HAS PUT YOU WHERE YOU ARE

“God has put you where you are.”  With these words, Kevin, a co-worker, confirmed my suspicions.  God really is running the show!  Two other crew members were sent to the woodyard to help on the south crane.  That left us two alone waiting for the cleaners to finish the cooking-liquor heater.  Then we could close up the top of the heat exchanger.  So, we descended into one of those rare deep discussions one gets to enjoy with a friend.

I commented about a church looking for a preacher.  We talked of the search process used by different denominations.  He turned the discussion, soon enough, into questions about the lack of good that comes out of “organized” religion.  By this he meant mega-churches, with doctors for pastors, and micro-managed multiple programs – versus – small country churches with farmers sharing from the Bible what is on their heart.  But, a church split had left him cold for years.  I commented that he had lost his faith that God was working in all of this; and similarly how He was working in my job reassignment from planner to mechanic, even though it made me extremely angry, doubting God was in control.  I told him that I wanted to get to the point where I could thank my former boss, who scuttled my career, for letting God use him to move me into a new ministry!

Next, my friend began to share how the fire had gone out, for him.  I shared with him my prayers to God to bring back the twenty-year-old in my heart.  I told him that prayer is his best bet.  We talked of the beatitude, “blessed are those who hunger and thirst…” and I thought of King David’s plea for God to create a new heart in him.  I told him music helps and how a good “Creed” song can make me “flame on” (like F4’s Johnny Flame).  And, we talked of the need for positive peer pressure from fellow believers.  It is far too easy to follow the carnal crowd.

I think it was at this point that Kevin made the comment, “maybe God has put you where you are?!  Here in our crew as a missionary to a bunch of rednecks?”  And I agreed, adding that one does not take a light and put it under a bushel.  My previous job had kept locked away in an office, cut off from personal-interaction/ministry!  The light was on, in my head!  God DID move me, much like he moved Joseph.  “…you meant evil, but God meant good; He sent me here to spare life…”  Kevin reminded of conversations about not having to go to China to be a missionary.  We prayed together before leaving to finish the liquor heater job.

After the job, I mentioned Paul’s quote that “God has appointed times and places for us that we might search for him.”  (Acts17:25-27)  I shared how that I’d like to see us all together on that great Day, “the pulp mill crew”!  I told him of an old hymn, “You Never Mentioned Him to Me” and how we would focus on the positive flip, we WILL mention Him.   And we tried to remember the words of Higher Ground -- “I’m pressing on the upward way…”   Kevin reminded me that he poked me already, in our morning crew meetings, about the “Daily Bread” readings, and that I needed to run with the ball.  I left work, walking through the basement of the pulp mill humming, “this little Xn light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…” 

FLAME ON!