Dark Room

I was soaking up every word as my pastor passionately preached on Sunday morning, feeling so alive because the Word is one thing that puts sparks in my eyes; just listening to it being broken down excites me. As I sat listening, this question was impressed in my heart : "Can I trust you to stick it out in the dark room, when the spot light isn't on you?" I didn't make much of it then, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.

Back in the day before digital cameras, we had cameras that captured images on a film. This film would have to be developed into  negatives necessary for printing in a darkroom. Why a dark room? Because the film is light sensitive. How is it developed? By using a series of chemicals. Two things stand out for me, development, taking place in the dark. Once the negatives are obtained, they are placed on an enlarger and printed onto paper, still in the darkroom (now with the presence of a red safe light). So the film steps into the darkroom just a sensitive film and after development, steps out bigger and stronger as a photo. All that is nice but the problem is where this happens.

I've been reading about Elisha. When God first spoke about Elisha, He was instructing Elijah to go anoint him as his successor. I expected to see Elijah filling up his horn with oil and finding Elisha then anointing him as prophet in front of his family, like Samuel did David. But what happened next is nothing like it. Elijah didn't even open his mouth when he found Elisha plowing with twelve yoke of oxen (this number indicating the wealth of his family). The Bible says Elijah only touched Elisha with his cloak, and from that Elisha got the message. But what gets to me is this portion of the last verse in 1 Kings 19: "Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant."
We later read about how an officer of the king referred to Elisha in 2 Kings 3:11 "Elisha son of Shaphat is here. He used to pour water on the hands of Elijah."

Elisha was a servant, doing menial work when God had anointed him a prophet. He probably could do everything Elijah did, he did more when Elijah died but the secret to that is his ability to stay in the background, to be back stage while all the focus was on Elijah. He stuck it out in the darkroom, being developed and enlarged into something greater. He proved that he could be trusted with the double anointing he later on asked for and received. He had multiple opportunities to turn back, Elijah even sent him away on one occasion. He could have quit serving Elijah, maybe even start his own ministry of prophesy but he stuck it out as a servant, a prophet in development, serving and
learning until his time to take center stage came.

My heart is challenged to be that kind of a leader, a leader who first serves, who doesn't rush into independency, but one who can be trusted to stick it out in the dark room.