What Are You Doing Here?

Sunday (September 13, 2015) was a great day of Celebration Sunday in Asbury Park. The Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove, New Jersey became a gigantic Corps Hall. September 13 marked the final summer Sunday morning worship for the season. For many years, the Asbury Park Corps has held forth and invited some of the greatest Army preachers of the day to bring a Holiness Message. I am told that Mrs. Commissioner Swanson took the opportunity to look through the guest speaker register. Surely a tear must have come to her eye when she discovered the signature of Commissioner Andrew S. Miller – her father.

Commissioner Barry Swanson took a very poignant text for this day of celebration and also reflection at the end of the summer. In I Kings 19:9 God asks Elijah a most probing question which has had me musing since. "What are you doing here?" God asks Elijah, and by extension all of us who follow the Lord God. I love to think about the great prophet with all his accomplishments, his loyalty to God, and even his legacy – literally his mantle of power.  But I don't like to think of the depressed, self-involved Elijah. You know, the one who hid in a cave after one of his greatest victories?

I guess it's because the self-involved Elijah is too much like me. We talk a lot about making a difference, about doing work for God, being God’s hands here and now. There are times when God comes quietly to me in my sulking self-made caves. And he asks, "What are you doing here?" He's really not asking a question, but reminding me that I'm not here to 'do' anything to help him.  

In this quiet moment, God comes to remind me why I'm here. Echoing across the ages is Jesus question to Peter: "Peter, Do you love me?" And then comes God's answer to all who follow Him: Simply, "Feed my Sheep." There you have it, Elijah's, Peter's, and our purpose as soldiers of Christ is to be:

"Channels only blessed Master,
But with all thy wondrous power
Flowing through me, thou canst use me
Every day and every hour."

Written by Major Carl E. Carvill
Asbury Park Corps