By Rebecca Hamilton
Life has a way of hitting us hard at times or in seasons of life. We all know it and we all feel it. Not long ago the phase of parenting that comes after high school graduation caught be very much off guard.
I thought being an empty nester was something I was absolutely prepared for and my enthusiasm for launching our young adults was fierce. Yet I was not prepared at all for what was to follow. All change creates loss and the loss needs to be felt.
I became a master mason of the walls I built to keep me from feeling the loss and going through the natural course of processing emotions. Friends, I was not a master mason and eventually the walls began to crack and crumble.
I am now two years post my son’s move to college three thousand miles away, and a recent study of Elijah helped me see God’s hand at work in my season.
Following Elijah’s literal mountaintop experience of defeating the prophets of Baal and God sending fire from heaven and rain on the land, he had confronted the King of Israel and all the people with a confidence in God and a boldness which is astounding in 1 Kings 18.
Yet only a few verses later we see a different Elijah.
Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life . . . ” (1 Kings 19:3) The aftermath of the Mt. Carmel mountaintop experience was not filled with boldness, confidence, and courage in the face of great danger; it was filled with fear and hiding.
Elijah like many of us in the ever-changing seasons of life did not know how to handle the change, pressure, exhaustion, and feel all the emotions. He ran and often so do we. But God.
The grace and mercy of God does not allow us to stay in hiding.
Elijah ran into isolation, building up his wall of defense much like I do when faced with changing circumstances. In 1 Kings 19:4-7, an angel came to provide the essentials of life for Elijah in his escape. God did not leave His prophet alone.
Elijah then traveled to Mount Horeb and hid in a cave. There on the mountain God spoke to Elijah in his
hiding and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
What are you doing here hiding?
God was not finished with his prophet due to his fear or the cave he used as a wall to hide from life’s realities. Neither does God leave us alone behind the nicely stacked walls we create for ourselves.
The very painful seasons that drive us to feverishly build our walls higher, run to isolation, and knock us to our knees often become our areas of ministry.
Where are you, Friend?
Are you avoiding God, not dealing with your past or emotions that feel too great to handle?
The change of entering the empty nest phase of life has now given me countless opportunities to talk to other women and to mentor women in a similar season of hiding from life’s realities.
My crumbled wall became the foundation for an area of ministry I was not equipped to enter without processing the pain hand in hand with God as I came out of the shadow much like Elijah stepping out of the cave on Mount Horeb.
Friend, it is time to break down the walls. Step out. Stop hiding. Listen to the still, small voice of our Savior. Open up our love letter from God and allow His Word and others to minister to you in the midst of the pain of your seasons.
It is time to live in the season and thrive as we walk through with confidence in God’s plan and purposes. Your season matters. Who you are in your season also matters. He sees you just as He saw Elijah. Your ministry is not over when life’s circumstances change . . . your ministry could just be getting started.
Rebecca Hamilton is a wife, mother of young adults, and a ministry leader at her church in Bluffton, South Carolina. While teaching fifth grade Bible several years ago, God clearly showed Rebecca what brought her the greatest joy – teaching others about God and His Word. She works with women’s ministry and other ministry areas to get people connected with serving, learning and growing within the local church. When he is not working on building ministries, she enjoys learning and traveling with her husband.
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