The fifty seminarians file into their seats in the audience, waving at one another, rattling their programs and checking their ticket stubs for seating arrangements. Fifty of them, over there across the Jordan. “Isn’t this the show that Elijah made famous in Second Kings, Chapter Two?”
“Yes; the boy playing the part today studied under him. But I hear he can’t touch Elijah in the part.”
“Well, an Elijah comes along only once in a generation. I don’t see why this young fellow is going to try to do Elijah’s act.”
The house lights dim. The curtain opens. The scene is set. Elisha enters. He strides to center stage where everyone can see him and takes his place at the banks of the River Jordan. He lifts the old wrinkled coat of Elijah over the waters and shouts his first line: “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” Striking the river prop with his coat, the waters part, but this time Elisha, not Elijah, crosses over.
The audience of seminarians applauds because Elisha played his part so well—not the part of Elijah, but the part of himself, Elisha.
Jeannette George is the artistic director of the A.D. Players, a Christian theater company. She tells of becoming acquainted with the speaker Marge Caldwell. She writes: “I heard her speak and saw the reaction and immediately assumed that that was what a Christian speaker was supposed to be. I tried to be just like her. I laughed like she does, I copied her approach to an audience and even told her jokes. I was terrible. My audiences were miserable, and I’m sure if Marge had seen me, she would have been miserable.
“I went limping back to the Lord and explained to Him that I had tried my best to be like Marge and wanted to know there I had gone wrong.
“The Lord let me know He had a Marge and she was doing a fantastic job of being Marge. However, He did have an opening in His cast: He didn’t have anyone being Jeannette.”
It was then that Jeannette realized that her own personhood, her own authenticity, was important to the plan of Christ.
Elisha’s feet had to find their own path for his beginnings. He had to step out in his personal authenticity, trusting that God could accomplish God’s purposes through Elisha just as God had accomplished divine purposes through Elijah. It is your talents and personality that God has chosen for a particular role on God’s stage.
Only Matthew could have written that Gospel. Only Paul could have been the bridge to the Gentiles. Only Mary could have been that special mother. Only Fanny Crosby could have written her hymns. Only Luther could have played Luther’s part in the Reformation. Only Peter could have projected the image of Peter. And only you can present the Christian life as you.
On the last day of their trip to Israel, a guide took a tour group to the banks of that River Jordan. Someone asked the guide, “Is this where Joshua crossed?”
“No,” the guide answered, “That’s over there. Joshua crossed about where John baptized Jesus, over there, where Elisha crossed back after leaving Elijah.”
From Joshua and the children of Israel, from Elijah to Elisha, from John the Baptist to Jesus, from the early church to this very town, “all the world’s a stage.” And you have a part to perform—a part God has chosen especially for you. The playing of that part well can change you for the better, can change your world, and determine the very outcome of this play we call Life.
The curtain is up: Break a leg!
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