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Endless Loop
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When programming computers, there is a trap that needs to be watched for-avoiding an "endless loop." In one computer language, the way this problem is created is by saying "DO:LOOP." A computer doing an endless loop is useless. It accomplishes nothing, and yet it is as active as it can be. It is shuttling back and forth between the "DO" and the "LOOP," but there is nothing between those statements, and there is no defined end to it. It would theoretically continue for all eternity except for outside physical factors. This sort of trap represents what all too easily happens to us. We have a loop in our lives, and all of our activities are contained within it. We execute those activities, and when we're finished, we go back to the beginning and start all over again. Our lives are endlessly active, and yet at times we seem to accomplish nothing. We find there is nothing in those activities that amounts to anything, and yet there seems no way out of the loop. When that happens, there is only one way out of the trap: STOP. BREAK. EXIT. DO NOT CONTINUE. It is only after you cease your activity that you are able to change things. When we find ourselves trapped in that loop, the way out is not through more activities, or even different activities, nor is it in constructing some sort of theoretical "out" condition such as, "I'll quit when I get this done," or "I'll quit when that happens." We can construct those conditions all day long, but they won't break us out of the loop. There is only one thing for us to do-cease our activities. Then we can begin to hear the "still small voice" of the Lord.

Elijah found this out himself. He fled from Jezebel, and soon found himself in an endless loop. I Kings 19:4-8, "But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God."

Elijah ran a loop until he could go no farther. The physical fear was only a part of it. He had mentally locked himself into his fear. "And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away." I Kings 19:9-10.

How many times had Elijah said that to himself during his journey? How many times had he looped through the same fear, the same "facts," the same hopelessness? Even now, in talking to God, he was still going through the same loop. "And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake." I Kings 19:11.

God showed Elijah, in a physical way, what much activity was like. It was endless action, destruction and happenings, but God was not in it. "And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice." I Kings 19:12. It was only after the activities ceased that God could talk with Elijah and it is only when we cease our endless worryings, musings, fears, desires and dreams that we also can hear Him. Let us all take time to break out of the endless loop that the devil seeks to drive us through, and take time to hear what God has to say.

Elijah finally listened, and God redirected him to a new era, telling him who to appoint as king after Ahab, and who to appoint as prophet after himself. We, too, can enter a new era with God only when we break from the old to hear His directions. Let us do this daily. [ The End ]




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