Elijah.

I'm burnt out. Any one else? Can anyone else feel the "umph" dying out of acedemics? Of relationships? Of work?

We're not the first to feel this way. This morning I'm reading 1 Kings 19. Here's this preacher who's had an excellent ministry record so far. He's killed false prophets by the truck load, he's offered a wet sacrifice that God consumed with heavenly flames, and he's confronted the wicked queen all while still very young. Today we would say that he's a prodogy of a minister. When we meet him in 19, Jezebel has threatened his life for killing her prophets and he's run away into the desert. Alone. He's just done great things for God and he's fleeing, on this dusty dester undertread. Alone.

God meets him here and asks him what he's doing.

Elijah sits himself under a tree and Scripture tells us that he "prayed that he might die" (verse 4). "'I have had enough,' he said. 'Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.' Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep." (verse 5) I have had enough.

I can understand Elijah today. "God, I've had enough! I can't do this! I came onto this floor with lofty plans and high expectations for my ministry on nine north. I thought I would be the RA to change it all. But I'm no better than those who have gone before me. I'm just another bolt in the cycle." And then he laid down and slept.

There's a loneliness in ministry.

Verses 5-7, "All at once and angle touched him and said, 'Get up and eat.' He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, 'Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.'"

God's love is practical and tangible. "Get up and eat. Rest. Then, get up and eat again. I know this journey is too much for you."

A few verses later, Elijah calls Elisha to be with him. He finds companionship, a person to journey with him when it was too much for him. I find so much comfort in this narrative today. When we are burnt out, when the journey is too much for us, we can call to God in our loneliness, take time to care for ourselves, and surround ourselves with godly fellowship.

Wow. Who knew there was an RA in the Bible?