1 Kings 19:19-21, Discipleship and Roasting your last Bull

Observation: The prophet Elijah calls Elisha to follow and learn from him. But first, Elisha cuts all ties with his past. He slaughters all his oxen, and has a barbecue with farm equipment for kindling. In this age, livestock were your 401K. There's no going back. There's no plan B.

Application: I've been a vegetarian for twenty years now. But unlike my wife, when I pass a barbecue joint, I still find the smell enticing. It might be bittersweet if it were my last ox on the grill...

At some point in all of our lives, the Lord will call us to leave something behind: maybe an attitude, maybe a behavior, maybe a job, maybe your home, maybe even an important relationship. If we are actually listening to God, this will happen. It's not a maybe. We will have an Elisha moment, when we smell the aroma of our last Bull being roasted.

This is also a sure thing: the path from there on will be completely different from what you picture. Your ideas of what following Jesus entails, what it will feel like, what you'll be asked to do, how you'll be received, one by one, will also go up in smoke. The one thing we can know about God's plan is that it's not identical to ours, and that will be difficult, and often frightening. But in my experience (and from what we read in Scripture), if you roast your last Bull to follow Jesus, your soul will not go hungry. The Lord always seems to have a soy griller to spare when I'm feeling weary. He's never let me down yet.

Prayer: Jesus, the very call to follow you is a priceless blessing, because your presence is Heaven and your word is truth. Thank you for the call. Help me roast my last bull--or tofu square, as the case may be--to answer. Amen.