When life gives you onions…make onionade?
Isn’t it strange how life’s troubles seem to come out of nowhere? It doesn’t matter who you are, trouble will almost always find you. It’s not racist. It’s has no prejudices. And it’s always timely—just when things seem to be going well.
Those of you familiar with the correct version of the title of this post were probably expecting the following: “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” That’s how life is, you expect one thing, but you get another.
A similar situation happens in 1 Kings 17:8-16. A poor widow has given up on life. I’m sure when she was married and had her first child she never would have thought she would be preparing her last meal. There’s a famine in Israel and because the woman is a widow, she and her son are not very high on the list for food rations.
As she is gathering sticks to prepare a fire for her last meal, she meets Elijah. He asks her to bring her some water…and bread. The problem is, the lady only has enough ingredients to make bread for her and her son. If she makes bread for Elijah, there will be none left for her and her son. She tells Elijah this and he tells her that if she does it, she will have food to last a lifetime.
Amazingly, the woman obeys and, “her and her household ate for many days (1 Kings 17:15).”
This is a pretty cool story. There are a few observations I would like to make that I think can be of help to us the next time we find ourselves in a crisis situation.
At first glance it may appear that the woman’s only problem is lack of food. According the passage this woman had multiple crises she was dealing with. She had a relational crisis because she was a widow and did not have a man in the house who could go and find food for her. She had a financial crisis because she had no money to buy food. This lead to her crisis of provisions, no food. Finally she has a physical crisis because later we find that her son gets sick and almost dies (1 Kings 17:17). This woman was really in a bad situation. Yet, God turned it all around. I will explain what she did to make this happen a little later.
A second observation is that she has no name. Why is this important? No one knew who she was. She was not important to society because she was a widow and could not contribute in any meaningful way. Despite all this God notices her and cares enough to get involved in her crisis.
When difficult times come, we tend to think that no one cares about our problems. Maybe we think that God himself doesn’t care. I know I do. I don’t always handle trials well because I get so caught up in my own circumstances that I forget all about God and the many Elijah’s he may be sending to help me. Some people look for God to directly speak to them and reverse their fortunes. But that’s not what happens here. He sends a typical human being. Someone she didn’t even notice.
A third observation I want you to notice about this story is precisely what this woman did to change her circumstances. If you ever want to know the key to overcoming non-clinical depression here it is. A servant’s heart. Most people probably think the miracle of the flour and oil is the bright spot of the story. It is definitely a bright spot but I think an even bigger one is in the fact that this woman took the time to help a stranger.
She could have easily ignored the man and focused on preparing her last meal. Don’t forget that this was her last meal. Instead of focusing on her own problems, she turns her attention to help someone else in need.
Depression is inherently selfish. I don’t want that to come off as cocky and non-understanding of people who are going through tough situations so please don’t take it that way. In and of itself depression ultimately is fueled by self-focus. The more focused we are on our problems the more depressed we get. This may explain why depressed people have a tendency to withdraw into themselves.
I don’t know if this moment finds you in good times or bad but if it’s bad I just want to encourage you to look for someone to bless instead of focusing on your own problems. Regardless of how you feel, trust that God is aware of your circumstances and is providentially working through other people. It would be theologically incorrect for me to conclude from this story that your situation will change if you turn from self-focus to being focused on others. This is just one story. However, I can say that if you turn your attention to others, you will experience more joy.
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Robert
I love theology and the challenge of making deep teachings non-boring. Let's face it, most of the time we hear theological teaching, it really is boring. Does it really have to be that way? Nope.
