In For the Long Run? #4
This week’s blog features part 4 of the In For The Long Run? series by Ron Simkins. Ron shares a cautionary tale of a leader that only believed for some of God’s victory and didn’t pursue all the victory God wanted to give him/his people. Ron encourages us to be ‘in for the long run’ when it comes to us pursuing God and all that God may want to do in and through us individually and as a fellowship.-Melissa Logsdon, NCF Associate Pastor
REMEMBERED FOR NOT BEING IN FOR THE LONG RUN
2 Kings 13:14-20 records what probably strikes (pun intended) most of us as a very strange event. It seems that God often ties blessings to events that seem a bit strange. Example: Why is being immersed in water (baptism) important to God? Why not ask us to do something difficult to show that we choose to be in the covenant with God that God offers through Jesus? Nonetheless, baptism does seem to be important to God and a pathway to new blessings. The following event seems to be somewhat in that category. After all, what could striking some arrows on the ground have to do with international politics?
The great prophet Elisha was an amazing, but pretty eccentric guy. As a prophet of God, he spoke truth to power and reprimanded several kings for their failure to be “in for the long run”—to “keep on keeping on”—with God.
14Now Elisha was suffering from the illness from which he died. Jehoash (or, Joash—the text is uncertain) king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him. “My father! My father!” he cried. “The chariots and horsemen of Israel!”
15 Elisha said, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did so. 16 “Take the bow in your hands,” he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands.
17 “Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. “The LORD’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. “You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.”
18 Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. 19 The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”
20 Elisha died and was buried.
There are moments in all of our lives when our choice of how to act changes human history at some level. And strangely, many of these moments are not the “big” moments. Instead, quite often they are what can seem to be the “Let’s just get this over with” moments, and the “let’s get on to the important stuff” moments. That seems to describe the king’s attitude toward the encounter in the passage above. Also, as in this event, there are moments when our successes and blessings satisfy us, and we quit pursuing God’s blessings at the very moment that much larger blessings were right on the horizon, but we didn’t “keep on keeping on” because we didn’t know that the most important blessings were still to come.
As I wrestle with implication of these realities, I find myself reflecting on my life, and my life in the community of Jesus followers. How often would there have been more blessings from God if I had just been more persistent in asking, seeking, and knocking at God’s door (Luke 11:6-13)? How often would we as a community (past and present) have seen God’s spirit at work more powerfully, and more clearly, if we had just “kept on keeping on” in our asking, seeking, and knocking at God’s door? How often have I thought a situation to be unimportant when actually many blessings were at stake? How often have I been satisfied with the current blessings and failed to keep on keeping on in my seeking the outpouring of God’s Spirit and missed the much larger blessings that were on the horizon, but I didn’t know it.
I am not one to wallow in guilt or guilt feelings. It is very counter-productive to do so. I count on confession and gracious forgiveness. and I am exceedingly thankful for these very needed gifts.
However, there are two other important things to consider and learn from in reflecting on the past. First, what can I/we learn from being truthful about times in my past when I did not “keep on keeping on—didn’t stay in for the long run? Second, what is God trying to tell me (us) right now about “keeping on keeping on” in our relationship with God? Am I, are we, in “for the long run” when it comes to diligently pursuing God’s blessings in the seemingly unimportant moments as well as the obviously important ones? Let’s hear God’s call to “keep on keeping on” as we choose to be “in for the long run.”-Ron Simkins, NCF Pastor Emeritus