I am unfortunately not at the massive Catalyst Conference this week (12,000 or so Next Gen church leaders in Atlanta). Just had too many things on my plate and had to give up something + a friend who is almost done with Bible college really, really wanted to go so we gifted him our tickets. I’m praying that God uses the experience to speak into his life by allowing him to take something from the event and let it become a catalyst in the pursuit of his calling. Thanks though to Twitter, Anne Jackson and www.CatalystBackstage.com I have an inside look into the event from a variety of perspectives.

Back to the point of this post (and sorry this one is a longer post but I need to share this thought so stick with me here)…

So I’m reading a Catalyst thought from Mark Batterson earlier today and it connected a few dots to something I have been pondering on for a while. You can read his full pull post here but the big part that stuck out to me was when he said this:

As we sat in the balcony during that last session, I felt like the Holy Spirit took me back to my initial call in college. And He said in that spirit voice: what happened to the guy that used to pace the chapel balcony for hours seeking my heart? It messed me up. Broke me. Wrecked me.

I need to quit ministry and go back to calling.

Let me set this up with some back story…

For almost two years now the story of Elijah in 1 Kings keeps being brought up to me in many seemingly random ways. Elijah and the prophets of Baal, specifically though 1 Kings 19:8-13 has weighed on me. Not just the part about Elijah hearing God in a whisper but the part about God asking Elijah “what are you doing here?” God asks Elijah that initially as Elijah was sleeping in a cave on a mountain. A while later God reframes the question and says to Elijah… “So Elijah, now tell me, what are you doing here?”

I think God really had some emphasis on the words SO and HERE. Like God was saying, “SOOOO, Elijah, what are you doing HERE? Didn’t you get it the first time I asked? Why are you in a cave and not where I had placed you? Why did you run? You started off sooo good and had amazing faith in me with the whole 450 prophets of Baal thing but then you let this one lady, Jezebel, throw you into a panic. You lost your way and now you are in a cave. What are you doing HERE???”

Can you see the parallel of this to Mark’s thought?

In the case of Elijah, he ran and ended up in a cave. But for us, it’s not always that dramatic is it? Sometimes in pursuit of things good… we fall short of things great. Sometime the best of intentions get hijacked and sidetracked. Sometimes we veer slightly off course and over time end up in a place that is different than perhaps where we should be or where God wants us to be. I think Mark’s comment echo’s that we need to make sure we stay on track, being really careful to pursue the calling that God has placed in our lives and not let the busyness and distractions turn that calling simply into hollowed out ministry.

Is God asking you, “So __(insert name here)__, now tell me, what are you doing HERE?”

Maybe it’s time to come out of the cave and renew that calling.