Mount Carmel Meltdown

No, I'm sorry, it's not a recipe post. (But it does kind of sound like some sort of gooey goodness!)

In the Old Testament is the record of a time when Elijah, who was a prophet, had a spectacular God-moment. If Elijah had a blog, it probably would have taken him a month of posts to do the story justice, because it was just THAT good. God showed up with an enormous display of His power - and if you've never read about it, you should. You can find it here.

After that literal mountain-top moment, Elijah had a meltdown. The queen of the land wasn't super thrilled about team God/Elijah trumping her gaggle of prophets, and she decided the best way to handle the situation was to kill Elijah. That news freaked him out (would have done the same to me) and he ran for his life - and then asked God to kill him because life just wasn't worth living. (Talk about two extremes!)

God respectfully denied that request.

When I was a kid, one of my pastors preached about that whole section of Scripture and he called his sermon "Mount Carmel Meltdown." It's literally the only sermon title I've ever remembered by heart. (Probably because it sounded like dessert.) He warned us that anytime we have a great encounter with God, we should expect a potential meltdown to follow.

Bottom line - Satan hates it when God's moving. If he can get in there and derail us...he will.

Sunday morning, I went to church utterly exhausted from a busy week and busier weekend. I sat in Sunday School and felt it coming...the meltdown. I literally got sick to my stomach thinking about what I'd said yes to (or rather, the unknown of what I said yes to) and the potential ramifications.

I had to leave. I had to get to one of those places where God and I have always done business and continue listening. So I left Sunday School, walked out of church, got in my car, and drove to one of the ponds where I always heard God so well last year.

I sat there for an hour and a half, wind beating against my car, sun and rain alternately fighting for possession of the sky, and listened for God's voice. I begged for direction...I begged for clarity...I begged for anything He could see fit to give me.

And He did. Some of the answers were hard to grasp. Some were uncomfortable. But all were clear.

The fighting probably isn't over yet. But then again, neither is His faithfulness.