2 Kings 2

Elijah asks Elisha “what can I do for you before I am taken”?  That is a pretty good gift isn’t it.  What would you ask for if the opportunity came to you?  Would it be fame or fortune?  Health or long life? Power or influence?  Elisha makes a request that really gives us the central truth of discipleship.  He says: “Your life repeated in my life. I want to be a holy man just like you”.  Whoa there.  Elisha asks to be just like his teacher.  Does anyone want to be just like you?  Would you let them if they wanted to?  Would it be good if your “life….repeated”?  I have thought about that and there are certainly parts of my life I don’t want repeated.  Mistakes I have made, selfish attitudes and living that are not godly.  Plenty of things that would be better left behind.  Yet Elijah offers up anything to Elisha and he asks to be just like him.  Reminds me of the “be like Mike” commercials that used to run on TV.  Who wants to “be like Jeff, or Zach, or Jim, or Gundar, or……………”.  You get the idea guys.  I could stick anyone’s name in that question.  God desires us to reproduce and “bear fruit” that is just like us.  Have you ever noticed what kind of fruit an apple tree produces?  Dumb question?  Sort of but the answer is that apple trees produce apples.  Orange trees produce oranges.  Erick produces……..?  Mitch produces…….?  Ken produces…….?  We are all to bear fruit, to “go and make disciples” and that means we do exactly what Elijah did here with Elisha.  We produce someone like us.  Puts life in a very different context doesn’t it.  I know for my life that Micah will do many things I do someday.  Already he mimics some of my behavior.  Nancy has let me know that some of my cute statements or actions have to stop now because he is already doing them with me.  And she is right.  I have to teach this young child “the way he should go so he does not depart from it”.  That is done by example – by the life I live.  Who are you leading and where are you taking them?  Think about the responsibility you have…..life matters!