INTERLUDES

Anyone who loves the performing arts will tell you the greatest artists are the ones who have suffered and out of their pain created masterpieces that reflect their own experiences. Whether it’s a musical, concert, film, television, theater or dance, the masters are those who are able to combine varied scenarios into a coherent, unified theme. These larger, more significant segments are fitly joined together by interludes: those brief scenes where unfamiliar characters appear and seemingly disjointed movements occur.

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Our lives individually and collectively are a great work of the Divine Master who uses our experiences to create testimonies to His glory. Now only He knows where this great work started and where it will end. While He has graciously given us the script or score of His Word and the coaching of His Holy Spirit, much of our lives is still unrecognizable to us in the moment. We find it difficult to discern the plot twists and who are the main characters in our lives. And between each apparent triumph there are interludes that seem like an eternity while we are in them.

As we continue 2009, we have our calendar dates, our roles, and our scripts, all of which we can use, but none of which we can rely upon. For in this period between old endings and new beginnings, many unknown variables will emerge. New people will enter our lives who don’t have a clue about why they are here. People we thought we knew well will surprise us with character developments we didn’t see coming. Strangers will come to us with unresolved issues of the past, unexpected emergencies, crisis and trauma in the present and fears and hopelessness about the future.

What will we have to depend upon ourselves as well as to offer others as we find ourselves in the interludes of life? Let us glean something from the Old Testament prophet Elijah. Between the end of 1 Kings 18 and the beginning of 1 Kings 20 (two high points in Elijah’s ministry), we find him in an interlude. His victory over the false prophets of the idol Baal followed by the end of a 3 ½ year drought is met with a death threat from the evil queen Jezebel.

In that moment, the mighty man of God finds himself fleeing from his place and his position. He gets 80 miles away from the nearest territory ruled by the queen and then leaves behind his servant a day’s journey to go into the desert. There, underneath a juniper tree, Elijah prays for his own death. But when no lightning bolt strikes him from above in response to his misdirected prayer, he goes to sleep. The Lord becomes Elijah’s rest.

He is awakened by an angel who had supplied him with nourishment for the journey ahead. Elijah eats God’s provisions. The Lord becomes Elijah’s manna.

Elijah runs on for 40 days and nights until he comes to a cave. There he waits for a word from God. The cave where the prophet was led is his refuge. The Lord has become Elijah’s Fortress, Rock and Shelter.

Powerful supernatural demonstrations of mighty winds, and earthquake and a fire appear, but Elijah discerns that the Lord is in none of these. Yet he is not moved by the occurrences for the Lord has become Elijah’s peace in the midst of the storm, his sure foundation in the earthquake and his asbestos suit in the midst of the fires.

Finally, after all the other flashy demonstrations, Elijah hears a still small voice. He recognizes it as the Lord’s and goes out of the cave to have an audience with Him face to face. The Lord has become Elijah’s Shepherd whose voice he follows. In this communion, Elijah receives wise counsel (he is not the only one left serving God), a fresh anointing (to be given to two kings and Elisha, his future successor), and a new commission (go with the armies of Israel into battle against their enemies).

In our interludes, let us be sensitive to the voice of God and the dealings of God as He reveals more of who He is to us in another dimension of experience. We need such knowledge of Him in order to offer hope and life to the world around us.