Slow down
What do you think of when you picture the word acceleration?
Maybe Usain Bolt? Or a person on a treadmill ‘giving it some welly?’ Perhaps you think of a fast plane or a speeding car.
I bet you never picture a snail though, do you?
Did you know that snails can only travel at 0.047km/hr. This means that it will take a snail over 21 hours to move just one km (0.6 mile) But for a snail, THIS IS ACCELERATION.
This is as fast as they can possibly go.
How about the three-toed Sloth. … if it does decide to move, this guy can reach a top speed of 2 metres (6.5 ft) per minute, that’s 0.12 km/h, or 0.07 miles per hour. Did you know that they are so slow algae grows on them and that there is a special sloth moth that lives on their fur? Take some time out and watch a sloth trying to respond to a female call it has heard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctutKTrf_NY
Let me tell you something about all of those things we have looked at.
They are all capable of movement. But sometimes they are totally still. The plane stands on the runway, the car is motionless in the garage, the runner sits quietly in the dressing room. Not all fast things are fast all the time.
Even when they do move, in the case of the sloth/snail it can look almost imperceptible.
I want to encourage you. In this year of acceleration God might be moving you, but it might look and feel a bit slow, especially at first.
Elijah was in a bad way in 1 Kings 19. He had used up every drop of his energy. He had come to the end of himself. But he did the right thing. He cried out to God.
Verse 4 of chapter 19 says, “I’ve had enough,” he told the Lord. “Take away my life. I’ve got to die sometime, and it might as well be now.”
Poor man! He’s desperate and afraid. We can’t do much for God or for anyone else when we feel like this can we? And God knows this.
When we run on empty that is dangerous.
He needs God to refuel his tank.
Do any of you know what can happen when you drive a car without fuel?
We breakdown, but we can also risk serious damage to our cars.
If you run out of petrol, your fuel pump can suck in the dirt on the bottom of the tank, clogging it and forcing a costly replacement.
Fuel gauges are not exact. They are still measured by a float, which can change depending on whether or not you’re on a hill, for instance.
The good news for us is that Divine acceleration happens for us when we get God to refuel our tanks. It might not look like a rocket taking off, but it will be momentum, forwards.
God heard Elijah’s cry and knew what he needed. God is very practical. He doesn’t send him a multitude of angels to sing to him. He doesn’t send him a stick that turns into a snake. He doesn’t send him an Amazon voucher or a cinema ticket. He knew Elijah was hungry and thirsty. So he sent someone with a takeaway. God knew what Elijah needed. No-one else could provide it, except Him.
Sometimes God chooses to meet with us when we feel dry sad or lonely. These times can be hard for us, but can sustain us for much longer than we realise. CS Lewis wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” I think we need times of hardship in order to get to know God better. I know that if I look back on my life, its been in hard times that God has been closest.
God sustains us with His encouragement. The Bible tells us that this meal kept Elijah going for 40 days. That’s a lot of Holy Spirit calories. 2500 per day X 40 is a long time to go without eating!
What is the miracle you are waiting for? In this year of acceleration God might just send it your way. Reposition yourself. Throw off disappointment and take it SLOW.