Today’s episode is found in Elijah’s question to the Israelites as they stood before him and the prophets of Baal: “How long are you going to limp between two opinions?” The Christian life is very difficult. It’s hard to remain committed to the Lord when so much of the world is tugging at our attention. It’s so easy to reduce our spiritual life to a mode of moralism. We find ourselves, as CS Lewis puts it, hoping that when God has taken what he wants, we’ll still have a little left over for ourselves once the taxes are paid. That’s all wrong, and though we have a taste for the results of the good thing, we still don’t have a taste for the good thing itself. We want the blessing without the sacrifice. We want our way, without the consequences. We want spiritual maturity without the growing pains. And in all that shallowness, we wonder why being a Christian just isn’t really doing it for us; meanwhile we’re dabbling in all sorts of distractions to keep from hearing God call our name too often. When are we going to stop? When are we going to choose God with our whole hearts? As Elijah said to the people “If The Lord is God, then follow him.”
