Problems: No Matter how Great and Destructive your Problems Seem now, Remember, You've Probably only Seen the Tip of Them

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Isn’t that the way it is?  The problems in our lives most often begin as an issue small enough that we can choose to ignore it.  A little bump in the road, a glitch in the system.  Oh that?  That’s just a minor setback.  If I do nothing and pretend like it doesn’t exist, I’m certain that, given an amount of time, it will resolve itself. 

But the bump eventually becomes the pothole that swallows our SUV.  The glitch causes our system to report a fatal error.  The minor setback becomes our Arkansas.  No offense to the Razorbacks…

The most startling thing to note is the ease with which our problems escalate.  So seamless and smooth is the translation that we hardly even notice the rapid change.  It’s as if we begin by living out a deeply passionate and spiritual folk song with a healthy measure of angst and wind up in an episode of ‘Cops’ with a country music song blaring in the background.  How did we go from Gordon Lightfoot to Hank Williams Junior in one night?

This is most likely due to our propensity to positively spin our circumstances into a more palatable interpretation of a dire situation until it is simply no longer possible to ignore the obvious.  What is most important, however, is not our learning to better anticipate this dynamic.  It is not about our seeing the world differently or being honest with ourselves.  Sometimes, problems are just problems.  Whether we understand them or not, whether we see them as they are or not – our problems will be what they will be.

What is important is not that we analyze and gauge our response – but that we recognize and embrace God’s response to our problems. 

Elijah had a real problem.  It may have seemed small at first – some lady is a little annoyed at people with his profession.  No big deal.  Citizens get angry with politicians.  Nurses get angry with doctors.  Parents get angry with teachers.  Pets get angry with vets – the kind that eliminate their fertility, not the kind that fought for our freedom; let’s not be silly. 

Frankly, Elijah had seen bigger deals in his time…until that cranky lady, or ‘Queen’ as she liked to be called, decided to kill all the prophets.  Not only was she cranky, she was efficient.  Elijah’s ‘woman scorned’ issue became a ‘woman, with emotional control over the ruler of the nation’s army and all the resources required to systematically annihilate an entire people group, scorned’ issue. 

Yeah, big problem.

So Elijah does what any real man would do.  He goes running into the wilderness scared for his life, wishes he was dead like a junior high boy who just got rejected by a girl at the big dance and takes a nap like an octogenarian who missed his mid-morning Ensure.  Good response, eh?  His problems have escalated.  It started minor but now it is huge.  He never thought on angry lady would be such a big issue.  But hold on, he’s a prophet, right?  PROPHET… wait for it…wait for it…waaaiiiiit foooor iiiiiitttt….

Shouldn’t he have seen this coming?

Hey OOO!  I’ll be here all week, don’t forget to tip your wait staff!

First, that’s not how the call of the prophet works.  A prophet speaks God’s Word to the people.  Sometimes it’s about the future, sometimes not.  There is no guarantee that they can see every bit of what lies ahead.  But what’s of note in this text is God’s response to the problem of his prophet.

We tend to want him to end our troubles in an acute fashion – by calling us home or by miraculously resolving the issue.  It seems like that’s what Elijah wants.  He asks God to just end it.  His problems are too much.  This issue is too big.  He can’t handle it.  He can’t resolve it.  He’s at his end.  It might have started small, but it’s gotten way too big for him. 

But God doesn’t take it away.  God doesn’t remove or resolve the problem.  God ministers to Elijah in rest and rejuvenation.  God nourishes Elijah with his presence – and with snackies!  He sustains him in the midst of the issue. 

God doesn’t take Elijah out of the world of problems and he doesn’t take his problems out of the world – because from God’s perspective the problem didn’t escalate.  Nothing changed.  That problem on day one thousand was the same as the problem on day one.  He certainly could have just spoken the word and made everything ok without having to get all ‘personal’ with Elijah in the wilderness, but that’s not God’s style when it comes to dealing with our issues.

Let’s be honest – our biggest problem is that we are sinners.  And our biggest real world problems all stem from that fact, and the fact that others are sinners and even all creation is fallen into sin.  When we reflect in Lent on that fact we might be tempted to wonder why God didn’t just end it in an acute fashion.  Why not just annihilate sin with his spoken and powerful word?  Why not just annihilate us and all of creation? 

It’s just not his nature.  Our God, as we struggle in the face of our greatest problem, chose to come and minister with us.  He chose to be present with us.  He chose sit with us, walk with us, teach us and eat with us.  He became man in Jesus so that we might be refreshed and renewed with strength for this world of problems.  He became man in Jesus so that we be in relationship with God facing the great trials of this world. 

Come to think of it, he became man in Jesus to pay for our sin on the cross in a rather acute and dramatic fashion – it may not be in the manner we anticipated, but it is resolved nonetheless. 

So consider this Lenten season that our biggest problem in the debt we owe of sin has been resolved – what lies in front of us is nothing more than the consequential ripples of the broken fallenness of life.  They seem to escalate, they seem to become enormous – but from God’s perspective they are minor and they have been dealt with.  He will be with you in the midst of them.  He will give you rest in the face of them.

And he usually brings snacks!