A Double Share

Week Twenty-Four | Fifty-Two 6.18.21

This particular weekend holds both gratitude and grief for many families, including mine now. It’s Father’s Day (and also my wedding anniversary to my best friend and teammate, twenty-two and counting). It will be a sweet time of celebration married with sorrow, as we rejoice in the gift of deep love and wrestle with the loss of a deeply loved one.

I’ve been thinking a lot about life lately. About its purpose and its brevity.

About my calling and my breath ~ here one day, gone the next.

And though it’s a sobering and quieting reality, by the kindness and grace of God, it can also be an awakening and a stirring.

I think this is what another guy named Elisha may have experienced when he realized that the man he modeled his life after (Elijah) was preparing to leave this earth, in nothing less than a chariot of fire and a whirlwind. Oh, and they had just crossed the Jordan River, on dry ground. No big deal. 

“When they came to the other side, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what I can do for you before I am taken away.” And Elisha replied, “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit and become your successor.””‭‭ 2 Kings‬ ‭2:9‬ 

A double share? Ok so Elisha could have asked this miracle-working man of God for ANYTHING, and he asks Elijah to repeat his life, not once but twice, in him.

In other words, make me like you but even better! It was a bold request, and a difficult one (Elijah said so himself). But it also testified to the power and impact of one faith-filled life on another.

Elisha’s desire wasn’t for selfish gain, not at all. He was a follower of God first (his name actually means “My God is salvation”), and his mentor came second. A mentor who was a brother-like friend and a father-like-figure, who lived and loved, believed and led in such a way that his death would yield even more than his overflowing life.

Because his life would be out-lived by the *one* he invested in most. Elisha would be double-trouble, in all the great Glory kind of ways. But not without this chapter of loss and grief. It’s a page we will all turn, on those we’ve loved and on the life we’ve lived.

And so, wherever you find yourself this Father’s Day ~ or whatever the day, whatever the story ~ may we live in such a way for one to say, Give me a double share of your spirit!

Glory alone to God.