There are those moments. Times when something stirs in your heart. Windows of time when you know there is a decision to be made.

But the question is too stark. It’s not a gradual question. It’s a hard question.

“Are you all in, or not?”

Something like that.

Those moments come. They come when God is ready, and he honestly knows we are ready. But we can so easily hesitate.

The stuff of life. Obligations. Desires. We are just plain soft. Comfortable.

Will we stretch? Will we respond?

Elisha was minding his own business, literally. He was in the family business, so he was plowing the field. His response to Elijah demonstrates he had been thinking about this, or something had already been stirring. But the moment came. Here was Elijah. The mantle was given. What would be the response?

Elisha goes and kisses his parents good bye. And he kills the oxen and burns the plows. He is lighting a torch to his part of the business. Literally. He will not go back. The call came. He responded so thoroughly he wasn’t going to go back. His sacrifice showed his gratefulness to God, and his commitment.

We feel a stirring. Then, the Spirit speaks.

Do we negotiate? Do we ignore it?

Or do we burn our plows?