Listening and following

In the readings of the week we see Elijah beginning very solemnly and with great confidence.  Then he loses all of that confidence and trusts and takes flight.  He literally hides himself in a cave out of fear of being murdered!  And when God meets him in the gentle breeze, he tells him to go back to where he came from. To face his torturers rather than flee.  To walk right into the face of death, rather than in the opposite direction.  And Elijah does what he is told.  

Elijah in more than one sense is a very failed prophet.  A very flippety-floppety prophet.  Someone just like us.  Like me.  Courageous and daring at one moment.  Timid and anxious the next.  Emboldened and  very outgoing on one day.  The very next day wake up confused and tired!  But in this very unsteady life pattern, there is one thing Elijah teaches us - me - very clearly:  listening to God!  He is gifted with the grace of discernment and when he hears God speak, he follows!  No more crippling fear. No withholding doubts. No petty vision of mere survival.