As the caravan stretched out for miles across the burning desert, one camel says to another, “I don’t care what they say–I’m thirsty.”

Some people say Christians don’t get discouraged. But you don’t care what they say, you get discouraged. And tired. You think about quitting.

“One more hurricane and I’m gone.” One more family moving away from my church. One more heartache, and I’m quitting.

Dr. David Hankins was preaching to some 25 or 30 couples–New Orleans pastors and wives–who were attending the retreat Hankins’ staff at the Louisiana Baptist Convention office had arranged for us. The above was part of his introduction.

We had driven up on Friday afternoon, feasted on barbecue at the LBC building that evening, heard Evangelism Director Wayne Jenkins do an incredible comedy routine, had Saturday to ourselves, enjoyed a fish fry and the Pine Ridge quartet that evening at Kingsville Baptist Church, and now on Sunday morning, we were completing the weekend with a 10 o’clock worship service. Hankins was speaking to a group of warriors who battle discouragement and fatigue daily, and his message could not have been more apropos.

His text was I Kings 19:9ff, the hard times Elijah went through following his great victory at Mount Carmel. The man of God was tired, spent, lonely, hungry, and discouraged. “Just let me die,” he said repeatedly.

“How did Elijah get this way?” David asked. He did it the same way the rest of us find ourselves down in the dumps and thinking of tossing in the towel.

1. The Press of Ministry.

Elijah was physically tired, emotionally drained, and spiritually used up. In such times, beware; you are susceptible to discouragement.

2. The Persistence of Evil.

After the great victory over the prophets of Baal, Jezebel had put a price on Elijah’s head. Instead of being honored, he was public enemy number one.

It’s crucial for the servant of the Lord to remember that IN THIS LIFE, THERE IS NO PERMANENT VICTORY OVER EVIL. The war against the forces of darkness is an unending struggle.

3. The Pain of Isolation.

Where are the good people, Elijah wondered. Where’s my team?

In effect, he was asking, “God, where are you?”

The Lord had an answer for Elijah, just as He does for each of us.

1. Get in the presence of the Lord.

God led Elijah to Horeb, which is another word for Sinai in Scripture. Some scholars believe the cave he entered was the very “cleft of the rock” where God hid Moses (Exodus 33:22). What better place for Elijah to be renewed than in this place where God had done such rejuvenating wonders for another discouraged servant.

Psalm 73 comes to mind. The psalmist was discouraged because of the presence of evil and the prosperity of the wicked. He was tempted to complain and worse, but then, decided to check with the Lord. “It was troublesome in my sight until I came into the sanctuary of God,” he confesses. “Then I perceived their end.”

2. Get the perspective of the Lord.

See things from the Lord’s viewpoint. Heavenly perspective: “Here’s how God sees things.” Historical perspective: “Here’s what God has done for His people in the past; this is nothing.”

3. Get on the pathway of the Lord.

God said to Elijah, “Go back the way you came.” (19:15) God is not through with you; there’s work to be done.

After the message, in thanking Dr. Hankins and his staff, I said, “I was expecting a little devotional message today. But what we received was a solid, timely word from God.”

I suggested to our pastors that they should dwell on this message prayerfully until the Lord makes it their own, then preach it to their people. I added facetiously, “And leave David Hankins out of it.” When they laughed, I said, “Because the Lord knows where he got it!”

I know pastors. Some of us hear a good message and turn around and repreach it to our congregation without taking the time to process it in our heads or allow it to do its full work in our hearts. Others will go to the other extreme, and not dare take the outline of another preacher. Both are errors.

I heard of a young preacher who said, “I am determined to be original or nothing.” And he became both.

For those who like the idea of preaching Dr. Hankins’ sermon, by studying the Scriptural material, you will find ideas he did not have time to cover. Or, at least, you’ll find ideas not covered in my brief notes of what David said.

For instance, God reminded Elijah that He still had 7,000 faithful ones who had not bowed the knee to Baal. So, if I were preaching this outline, I’d add one more point: Get with the people of the Lord.

Someone told me recently that Charles Stanley gave the little acrostic H-A-L-T, and said, “We should not get too hungry, too angry, too lonely, or too tired.” So many dangers beset us when we are at the low point, needing what Dr. Hankins called “a second wind.”

Speaking of perspective…three short add-ons here…mostly to keep me from writing another article on this Labor Day when there are books waiting to be read and cartoons to be drawn, not to say some grandchildren who need a little of my time and a football game or two requiring my attention.

The first is personal.

Recently, when I posted my Gardner-Webb message (“Words to Stand You on Your Feet”) on this website, concerning the double-edged power of words both to cut and to heal, to bind or set free, my 95-year-old father gave a comment that my sister Carolyn Lampman posted. It was so poignant, it bears repeating here.

The year was 1924. Dad was 12 years old and had dropped out of the seventh grade to go to work. As the oldest child in a family that would eventually number 12 children, the family needed more income. For two years, Pop carried water 9 hours a day at a planer mill for 50 cents a day. He walked 6 miles round trip just to get to work.

Meanwhile, his father, Grandpa George, had found work in the coal mines of West Frankfort, Illinois. He worked for 30 days before the first pay check, which went to pay his room and board. Sixty days went by before he sent the first money home to Nauvoo, Alabama. The six dollars every two weeks young Carl brought home was the only money Grandma Bessie had.

Dad worked barefooted, and for good reason, he says. But he remembers too vividly the day the foreman of the mill poked fun at his feet. “When you gut those,” he laughed, “I want the gizzard.” It was just a joke. And he probably meant no harm by it. More than likely, it was just his crude way of acknowledging the kid, of saying “good morning.”

That was 83 years ago, and Dad still feels the pain of the unthinking words. “He had no idea how it hurt,” he says.

The best perspective on how our words come across is to put yourself in the other fellow’s shoes. Or maybe, his bare feet.

The second comment concerns the sad state of affairs in the governance of New Orleans.

Saturday’s Times-Picayune says Mayor C. Ray Nagin has made his senior department heads off-limits to members of the City Council. The only way a council member can meet with a department head–whom they are required by law to oversee–is to make a request to the mayor’s office. And on one occasion this week when hizzoner’s office stonewalled the council member, Council President Arnie Fielkow intervened. When no one at City Hall would return his call, he went to his ultimate weapon: the subpoena.

That got some action. The department head rushed over for the meeting, and the mayor protested, “The very idea!” Fielkow and the council are the good guys in this, for my money.

Nagin was first elected because he was not a politician, but a business executive (local manager of Cox Cable) who would bring better management and a new openness to the city administration. But as the years have gone by, the mayor seems to have fallen in love with his celebrity and to have learned from the genuine celebs around the country with whom he now hobnobs that secrecy and subterfuge are the accepted modus operandi these days.

And the third one.

One of our Baptist pastors stood in the pulpit of his church last Sunday morning and used as a sermon illustration the recent situation of a city council member taking bribes and then resigning his position in shame. I wasn’t there and did not hear the context, so cannot report on anything except the following: that former council member was in the congregation and heard the message. During the altar call, he and his wife came forward to make a new commitment to Christ.

The Lord is good. He’s still in charge. Our eyes are on Him. We pray for our leaders and thank God for those who faithfully give their best. But we will hang in here and be faithful for His sake, by His power, in His strength, and with His people.