The Lampposts
Before Elisha received his mantle from Elijah, he paused by Gilgal and was asked to stop there. He wouldn’t. You see, Gilgal was a lamppost. It was the place God said to Joshua: “This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you”. Off Elisha went to another lamppost, a place of promise – Bethel. It was in Bethel that God promised to give the land to Abraham. Elisha paused but went on to Jericho, yet another lamppost. In Jericho, the Lord wrought a great victory for the Israelites, proving for all ages that it is not by power nor by might, but by His Spirit. And so we see Elisha visiting these lampposts, pausing yet not stopping.
My Lamppost
God recently orchestrated it that I pause by my lamppost, Fontana, California (30 minutes East of Los Angeles). I paused at a site full of my ashes. A lamppost where I was humbled, where I slept in a grocery store parking lot. A place where, like the prodigal son, my senses came back to me and I cried out to God in despair, with all my heart. He heard. He responded with simple words that: “He will not take me to a place where His provision won’t reach me”. This insight birthed my renaissance. Have you paused by your own lamppost lately?
Your Lamppost
Your life is full of lampposts. Altars to where God has been with you. It could be joyful, like where you got a promotion or painful like where your marriage collapsed. Acknowledge these lampposts. Pause to reflect on them. Many times in life, God will send you back to these lampposts for rumination. If you want to accomplish your life work, then visit (don’t stay there) your lampposts periodically. Visit, acknowledge, pause, reflect and move on to do that you were born to do.
And let us arise , and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went – Genesis 35:3
