Where do we see God? In what ways do we encounter the divine? What is the struggle that we have with God? Is it in the tension between the evil in this world and the divine goodness? Is it in how one community interprets scripture versus another? The prophet Elijah was face to face with his own struggle --- that God had abandoned him and he was going to die at the hands of his enemies. In this moment, Elijah struggles to figure out what he's supposed to do next. Elijah goes through a struggle at Mt. Horeb, where he meets God...not in the earthquake...not in the fire...but in the silence. The point here is not that one only meets God in silence. Even though Elijah hears God, he comes out of this encounter unchanged. Yet, in his struggle he goes to great depths of faith.
So we may ask: What am I doing? What is the point? What is my purpose? The point here is that God was doing something special. Even in the midst of struggle and in the midst of figuring it out...God was using Elijah. In the midst of this, Elijah chooses to engage God rather than disengage. He wasn't changed immediately. His hopeless disposition remained for the moment, but God uses Elijah.
How do we engage God? How do we open ourselves up to be used by God to care and love for our neighbors? How do we figure it out?
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