Burning the Plough

The old maxim, "Forgive and forget" is not particularly helpful in many situations as it puts the burden on us to hurry up and get over things, usually without actually dealing with the issue.  On an interpersonal level, this has had disastrous consequences for many people leaving them with wounds that are covered over but aren't healed.  The redeeming quality in this line of thinking is the desire to help the person make a fresh start.  God often calls us to hurry up and get over things, more specifically, to make a clean break from those things that were in the way of fully living for Him.   

As I continued to read from 1 Kings, I was convicted by the call of Elisha and especially its corresponding parallels with New Testament themes and my own life.  Here's the story from 1 Kings 19:

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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.  Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah.  "Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye," he said, "and then I will come back with you."
"Go back," Elijah replied. "What have I done to you?"
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.

When the call of God came on Elisha through the prophet Elijah, look at how quickly he responded.  He didn't just drop everything and go.  Rather he make a complete break with his old way of life: saying goodbye to his family (a radical step in itself in ancient times), burning his livelihood, and having a celebratory farewell feast with it!  There was no going back for Elisha, he was all in.

That is the kind of clean break God desires from us when our whole lives are entrusted to him.  Put aside the old way of living, the ways we remain self-dependent and self-sufficient.  It is a call to live in the radical love, grace, and mercy of Jesus Christ who was the ultimate sacrifice for our sins so that we stand before our Creator as ones who are holy and righteous in His sight.  The only authentic response to a love so amazing is to surrender ourselves to the One who calls us, to make a clean break from those things that we are holding onto that hinder our following Jesus wholeheartedly.  

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" 2 Cor. 5:17

Today God is calling you into new life with Him.  What is the Holy Spirit calling you to give up in order for you to fully live in the fresh start that God has given to you?  God is calling. Are you willing to follow potentially at great cost?  Are you ready to burn the plough of your old way of living to set off on a new journey with God?