Last week in our online church, the pastor shared a passionate sermon about pivoting by relating the concept in basketball with how we relate to God in the midst of adversity. For those that don’t know what pivoting in basketball is, this is what it looks like: when you are on the court and you have the ball you have three moves you can make; to pass, shoot or dribble. But once you are stationary on the court with the ball, the rules say you can move one foot around, as long as the other foot (the “pivot foot”) remains planted on the floor. This is called pivoting. As my pastor described it, a pivot is a point where movement stops and a decision must be made.

As I was reading my bible this week I came across the story of the call of Elisha in 1st Kings 19: 19-21. This is what happened:  God told Elijah that Elisha would succeed him as a prophet and so he went to look for Elisha. Elijah found Elisha in a field plowing with oxen, approached and threw his cloak on him and walked away. That was a pivot point for Elisha. All movement had stopped and Elisha had to decide what to do about that awkward rendezvous.

Here is what Elisha did: 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. Elisha chose to lean into the calling and purpose of God for his life which was to become a prophet. He could have just shrugged the moment away and just gone back to plowing his field.

The current global pandemic has put an unexpected and sudden pause on many things in our lives: travels, celebrations such as weddings,  business plans etc. This serves as a pivot point in our lives. How will you respond in this pause when movement has stopped? Are you going to seek God’s plans and purposes for you during this time and walk in them? Or are you going to pivot away from God’s plans and walk your own path?

Jesus is calling you to draw near, step a little deeper into the water in faith.  Slaughter your oxen and burn the plowing equipment so you have no reason to look back when you choose God’s plans for you.  Remember His plans for you are to prosper you and bring you to an expected end.

Yours Truly