Healing Articles and Essays

In 1 Kings 19, the origin story Broom Tree gets its name from, Elijah the prophet is DONE. 

He has just experienced the greatest “success” of his prophetic career (see 1 Kings 18). He challenged the prophets of Baal to a duel (Whose god can show up with fire?), won decisively, turned the people of Israel back to the true God, defeated/slaughtered the false prophets, prayed for rain and ended a three-year drought. Then he outran a horse for the length of a marathon. Elijah was winning! He could/should/would have felt great.

But Jezebel, the wicked queen who is his nemesis, pops that bubble. She sends Elijah a message swearing to have him killed by tomorrow. So he runs for his life, more than a day, and collapses under a broom tree.

Elijah needed shade. He needed refuge. He needed rest. Soon he would need food and water and further instructions, but first, first, he needed to lie down in the shade. 

Have you been there, like Elijah? Perhaps it was a great success, or perhaps a great failure. And now it’s the after. When the adrenaline burns off, there’s the letdown, the exhaustion, that hollowed-out feeling. Your legs feel like they’re made of concrete – not…one…more…step. 

We’ve definitely been there, more than once. Finding ourselves in need of shade – a pause, some cover, respite from the sun, a protected place to get some rest. 

If that is you today, here are some resources that have sheltered us when we felt done. They won’t fix everything, but they can provide a moment or two of relief.