“So Elisha left him and went back. 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.” — 1 Kings 19:21
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A close pastor friend of mine has a son who had been a top soccer player since he was a very young child. He was so good that he began playing for one of the Major League Soccer junior teams as a teenager. When his team came to play the Houston Dynamo’s junior team, I watched him play. Even amongst future college and professional soccer players, he stood out.
Toward the end of his high school career, he had two options: keep playing in the MLS farm system or accept a college soccer scholarship. He took recruiting visits all across the country and listened to the offers of college coaches.
What did he decide? Neither. Instead, he accepted God’s call into full-time ministry. He walked away from soccer and enrolled in Bible college. Many of the soccer coaches who had connected with him were shocked and stunned that he would walk away from such a bright future in soccer. Today, that boy is a youth pastor, and when he takes the field, it is to speak to hundreds of teenagers at an outdoor outreach event. God is using him powerfully.
In 1 Kings 19:19-21, when God calls Elisha through Elijah, Elisha answers God’s call by walking away from and sacrificing his career; he even sacrificed the oxen he was plowing with.
Perhaps you are sensing God’s call or invitation to be used by Him. For the sake of the call, are you willing to lay down your all?
— Ikki Soma, Iowa Wolves chaplain
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