Take Up The Mantle: How We May Remember The Chosen

On occasion, we are left alone with a persistent call to be better. Not better in a sense of more powerful, more liked, or more accomplished. Just be better, in relation to what is around you.

How do we discover what that better is? Perhaps we may by remembering those who were chosen to be better.

In the Old Testament, the two prophets who sought to be better in the most tumultuous times were Elijah and Elisha. Ironically, these two men were polar opposites in their personality when first meeting.

Elijah was colorful, Elisha was bland. Yet when Elisha was called by Elijah to emulate his work, he did not hesitate. They were different on the surface, but their souls were the same. This came to be when Elijah granted Elisha a final favor of any kind; and all Elisha requested was to “inherit a double portion of your spirit” (2 Kings 2:9). While this was a difficult, unexpected request; Elijah granted it because he trusted that Elisha would discover what it meant to be better in a world that was worsening. He saw something certain in Elisha’s future that others could not see at the time. Nonetheless, Elisha committed to replacing Elijah’s spirit despite the uncertainty; because the world needed his service just as equally.

To double Elijah’s spirit would be a near impossible task. It required doubled:

-Commitment

-Consistency

-Selflessness

-Empathy

-Attentiveness

Elijah was human, so he struggled, but he was born to bear this life. He was chosen.

Sometimes we may not feel we are worthy to be chosen, but like Elisha, when Better calls to us we must answer it. No matter our self-perception.

This moment birthed the idiom “Take Up The Mantle”.

Elisha stayed beside his friend to the very end. The companionship would be irreplaceable; but now Elisha had an opportunity to show how he was chosen to serve also, to be better in his own way. To honor, to believe, to continue the goodness that his friend seemingly worked effortlessly to present to the world. It would not be easy, but it would be worth it. Elisha had the conviction, but Elijah was the example that allowed him to follow through.

Kobe Bryant said it best: “There is power in understanding the journey of others to help create your own”.

The will to be better is the first step to creating a life worth living, and the second step is finding examples of what that life shall be. We then must extract the uniquest elements of their life that inspire us, and then commit to compounding its value in the way Elisha strived. Nothing more, nothing less. This is how we may preserve legacy, how we may remember those who were chosen by God to be better.

For me, Daniel Barnett was the Elijah to my Elisha. I struggle mightily to find the value in a volatile life, but I have an everlasting example of how I can still be better.

-To be more selfless, caring, and unapologetically myself.

-To rebuke allowing current circumstance to control me.

-To brighten the light of others when mine is at its dimmest.

-To hear out others, because we all have good ideas to share.

-To love unconditionally, because there’s always more we can give

-To keep the faith, because our world can’t afford to lose that too

Better. Forever.