Don't Let the "Elijah Syndrome" Derail You

What is the “Elijah Syndrome”? In the book of 1 Kings, chapters 17-19, Elijah is following God’s call and standing up to King Ahab. After God reveals his power over Baal by raining fire from heaven, Elijah runs to the mountains when he hears that Jezebel has threatened to kill him. When God comes looking for him, Elijah replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too” (1 Kings 19:10).

This is what I call the Elijah Syndrome. You are tired, you have been working hard, and a threat sends you running for the hills. You lose your perspective, forget who your God is and what he has done, and turn your eyes inward on yourself. Many times, this happens when circumstances confirm our emotions. Feelings are meant to alert us when something is wrong, but they can also cloud our analysis of a situation. We can lose our perspective. Recently this principle was driven home for me.

Library Columns and Steps

My daughter is a professional photographer and she was preparing to take a family’s portrait in our town. We were looking at the sites she thought might be a good place. She had chosen as a possible site our county library which has huge stately columns under a portico. I had previously seen that they were covered with graffiti, so I said I didn’t think using the columns as a background would be a good option.

When we arrived, my daughter walked one way and I went the other way around to reach the front of the building. The way I was walking, I could see the columns were covered in graffiti. But she came from the other way and that side of the columns did not have graffiti. She was right. This spot would make a beautiful backdrop for family portraits.

To gain perspective, I had to let go of my assumption that my view was the right view. I had to physically move to her vantage point to see things from her perspective. It went against everything in me!

I had believed that if I let go of my rightness and saw something from someone else’s perspective, it would change Truth. But that’s not the case. Truth remains the Truth. I just had to have the humility to acknowledge that I may not be seeing everything. I didn’t have all of the information I needed. By moving to see her perspective, I could see what she saw. Humbling myself also made a subtle change in our relationship: we were still mother-daughter but we became deeper friends.

When we are butting heads with someone, especially when we are exhausted from ministry like Elijah, or feeling stressed and too convinced we are right, it’s always good to get some rest.

Another tip that helped me was the suggestion to go to the person I was struggling with and genuinely say, “Help me understand…” This phrase can de-escalate the tension and help us look at the situation from their perspective, perhaps opening them to see things from ours and a mutually satisfying resolution. But even if they don’t see what we see, we aren’t responsible for them. We’ve taken the steps toward building the relationship.

That’s a good thing.