1 Kings 19:9  There he came to a cave, where he spent the night. But the Lord said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (NLT)

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“Why am I here?” 

The question came to my mind repeatedly over a couple of days. I was staying in a hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The meetings I had attended for years had been trimmed down, leaving me with a lot of dead time to fill. 

I read. I wrote. I sketched out plans. I pondered imponderables. And then I got bored. 

Rental cars were more expensive than normal, so I chose Uber and Lyft for my rides. Moreover, I thought I was staying near an area with over three hundred restaurants within walking distance, including a couple of my favorites. 

Except that I somehow booked the wrong hotel and found myself in an area of the city I did not know. There was nothing nearby of interest for dining or window shopping. 

I was alone, and I felt really, really alone. 

I asked our Father in heaven more than once, “Why am I here?” Satisfactory answers didn’t come. Before I returned home to Texas, I arrived at a poorly attended meeting and stood outside the church where we were gathering on a very cool morning. When we finally made it inside, there was no coffee, and there was also no heat. 

I like cold weather when I’m prepared for it. I was not prepared for it, and my attitude did not improve. 

A friend from New York was there. He had strongly considered moving to Vancouver years before and had friends there he was visiting on this occasion. We chatted about a search process I was assisting with. He offered a recommendation and a resume for a friend of his.

That was around four years ago. The last two weekends in Washington, D.C., and here in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, we have witnessed the fruit arising from that short conversation on a cold morning with no coffee, where I spent most of three days alone, wondering why in the world I was there. 

The fruitfulness of the connection is remarkable. Only God could engineer circumstances like that. 

The next time you wonder, “What am I doing here?” make sure you turn your question into a prayer. 

The next time God asks you, “What are you doing here?” make sure you ask him for guidance. 

God had a mission for Elijah bigger, better, and broader than anything he had accomplished to that point. We know more about Elijah after his resignation than before. His greatest work came after he had given up. 

What are you doing here? 

What does God have in store for your next adventure?

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I will trust God to place me where he wants me when he needs me to be there.

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Our Father, what do you have in store for me today? How can I play the role you have scripted for me? How will you use me as a mediator of your grace? Where will you take me where I can hear you most clearly? How can I prepare the generations to come for lives of success and significance? Amen.