Get Up & Eat

1 Kings 19: 4-8

Roger Lynn

August 26, 2018

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David Wilcox sings a song about a man in the midst of a mid-life crisis of meaning. He heads off to India and climbs into the mountains to find the “Wise Man” who will be able to offer him the words of wisdom which will give new meaning and purpose to his life. The wise man’s surprising answer is, in part, to get up and eat some broccoli. And while I might have chosen a different source of nutrition, the point is well taken. Sometimes when life gets overwhelming we forget to take care of ourselves physically, emotionally, spiritually, which only serves to exacerbate the problem of perspective.

The prophet Elijah was in a hard spot. He found himself on the wrong side of the queen, and his life was at risk. He gets overwhelmed and chooses to respond to the situation by running away. Not only does he run away, but along the way he pouts and whines as well. Taking a page out of the play book from the Israelites’ days in the wilderness, he says to God, “Just kill me now! Get it over with. Life is horrible and I can’t see any reason to go on.” God’s answer, like that of the wise man in Wilcox’ song, is surprisingly simple. “Get up and eat.” God has to say it twice, because Elijah wasn’t ready to hear it the first time. “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” (1 Kings 19:7)

Life gets overwhelming sometimes. That’s just the way life works. And in such times, it is so easy to lose perspective, to lose touch with what’s real and what’s important. We forget to eat. We forget to sleep. We forget that we are not alone. My late wife Veronica and I used to describe such experiences as being “out of the boat.” And when it got really bad we would say we were not only out of the boat – there is no boat, there’s never been a boat, there never will be a boat. Elijah models the experience pretty well – just run away whimpering and wishing you were dead, because any reason for hope is so far beyond your field of vision at the moment as to be nonexistent. Sometimes we are overwhelmed by the circumstances of our personal lives – our relationships, our jobs, our finances, our health. Sometimes we are overwhelmed by what we see happening in the world around us – war, poverty, humanitarian crises of every shape and size. But whether the stimulus is personal or global, you know you need a different strategy when you find yourself hiding in a cave or under a broom tree. And in such moments, we would do well to pay attention to the voice of Sacred Presence, in this case as spoken to Elijah. “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.”

We do no one any good (ourselves or the world) when we forget to take care of ourselves. The world is not served when we run away and hide. We are not served when we lose sight of the fact that we are not in this life alone. God is with us, and we are with each other. We are never alone. “Get up and eat!” A message to take both literally and metaphorically. Take care of yourself – get enough sleep, eat nutritious food, drink enough water, get some exercise. Take care of yourself – remember to pray, remember to play, remember to be intentional about nourishing your soul. Take care of yourself – reach out and connect with the people around you, open yourself to the gifts of being in community, find strength in joining your efforts with the efforts of others who are also seeking to make a positive contribution to the world. Get up and eat.

It is no accident that one of the powerful symbols of the Christian faith is a table. Get up and eat. With the days growing dark and his life being threatened from all sides, Jesus did not run away and hide. He gathered his friends around him and he shared a meal with them. He reminded them that they were not alone – that they would never be alone. He reminded them that there is value in eating together – that even in an ordinary loaf of bread and an ordinary cup of wine a taste of God can be found. Get up and eat!

In these days in which we find ourselves, as we watch friends experience various troubles in their relationships, with their health, with their own emotional well-being, and when circumstances in the world around us seem to sink ever deeper into a well of madness, there is sometimes a strong temptation to just run away and hide. May we instead hear the message which Elijah heard. “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you!” May we remember to take care of ourselves – physically, emotionally, spiritually, so that we in turn can contribute to the healing of the world. Get up and eat.