Life on the Pot

Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself . . .” 1 Kings 18:27

Today’s passage tells one of my favorite childhood Old Testament stories. In it, Elijah, a prophet of God, challenged the prophets of the false god, Baal, whom the Israelites had been worshipping. The contest was simple. Elijah, stood alone, offering a bull to his God, while the 450 prophets of Baal offered a bull to their god. Whichever god consumed the offering with fire was the one true God.

After the prophets of Baal cried out to their god for hours with no results, Elijah began taunting them. In the Living Bible translation that we read as a child, Elijah mocked, Where is your god? Perhaps he is out sitting on the pot!

At age five, that was about the most sacrilegious and fantastic thing I had ever heard. Elijah was the Chuck Norris of the Bible as he mocked the false god, called down fire from heaven and won the day in dramatic fashion. I wanted to be Elijah. Maybe I was a weird kid, but I wanted God to use me like that.

For better or worse, I’ve never been able to call down fire from heaven. What then do I have to convince others of the God I know? I have my life, which is a little terrifying. Is mine a testament to the reality of God’s love, power, and grace? Or, when people look at me, do they see someone still wallowing in self-destructive choices.

We will not likely ever call down fire from heaven for God. We do daily though, have the choice to live in such a way that will point others to Him. When we live for ourselves, the world may rightly mock us, Where is your god? Is He out sitting on the pot? If we abandon ourselves to pursue God however, we will know the life, joy and peace that can only be found in Him. Then, we will find that a transformed life is more powerful than any fire from heaven ever could be.