Summer At Sea: Week 6 Day 3

1 Kings 19:19-21

19 So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. 20 Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,” he said, “and then I will come with you.”

“Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?”

21 So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.

I like to build things, albeit I’m not very good at it, but still I love hard work and seeing progress at the end of a day. One of my life goals is to build a small log cabin with a stone fireplace in the woods with my own hands, and then on cold winter days and nights go out and enjoy its cozy warmth.

I think this is why I like Elisha. Here was a man who liked work, he did not have to be laboring as he was when Elijah found him. Elisha wanted the job he had. His role as owner of the farm was clear, the twelve oxen teams were a clear sign of wealth and yet he was working, laboring, and faithful to the task he was given. I often wonder if hard work is undervalued? We tell people to follow their passions; often our passions, however, are about success that feeds our comfort or sees our preferences being met at the expense of our engagement to our calling.

Here is a thought, if you do not yet know what you were made to do, ask the Lord to give you the skills and desire to be found in the fields working hard when the call comes for whatever God has next. Until then, wherever you are is where you are called, be industrious for the Gospel in the work you do.