Never-ending Oil, Never-ending Hope—a Monologue | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Never-ending Oil, Never-ending Hope—a Monologue | Previous Challenge Entry
By Laurie Kiel
06/16/22
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WOMAN IN MODERN DRESS ADDRESSES THE AUDIENCE
“Thirty-three hundred dollars.” The mechanic told me when I asked him the amount of my long overdue car repairs. Thirty-three HUNDRED dollars!

There goes my savings and beyond. And then I thought about a woman in the Bible who had come to the end of her resources. Only a small jar of oil and the prophet Elisha stood between her and losing her sons forever. I wonder what it would have been like to be that widow.

(PUTS ON HEADDRESS)
It’s over. I see no future, no hope. It’s the end. First was the end of my marriage when my husband died. Then came the end of our resources. You know what is never ending – – my debts. They kept mounting and mounting. And what else is never ending: my fear that I will lose my sons as well.

My dead husband had been part of the company of prophets. I didn't know what to do so I run to Elisha. I cry out to him, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the LORD. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves."(2 Kings 4 NIV).

As those words came out of my mouth, a wave of hopelessness engulfed me. Saying those words out loud made the horror so real. I might lose my sons, my heart.

Elisha asks how he can help, and what do I have in the house? What do I have? Nothing. I've sold EVERYTHING to try and save my sons. Except...except...I realize that there is something left, so little, it wasn't worth selling. Almost ashamed of my poverty, but too desperate to hide anything, I tell Elisha I have nothing, except a small jar of olive oil.

Elisha tells me to gather every jar that I can borrow from my neighbors. If I had had time to sit and think, the whole thing would have seemed pointless and a waste, but there was no time to analyze, just believe. For Elisha is a prophet, and he is in the miracle business, and I desperately needed a miracle.

A few hours later, I stand in my house, the tiny jar of oil in my hand, and scores of jars in every size and shape. I look at the tiny jar and think, that little jar is about the size of my hope right now.

It won't be long before the oil, and the hope, are gone. I’m sure that my little jar won't fill even one of the jars. But Elisha is a prophet and one doesn’t disobey a prophet.

And I’m desperate so I tentatively start pouring the oil into the first borrowed jar, expecting my little jar to run out. But it doesn't! The first jar is full, and my little jar is as full as ever! As soon as I fill one jar, one of my sons hands me another jar.

I pour and I pour and I pour. As the number of filled jars grows, so does my hope. The time comes when I ask my son to bring the next jar and he tells me they’ve all been filled.. And then the oil stopped.

I run to Elisha. And he tells me to sell the oil to pay off the debt. And I realize it's not the end but a new beginning. Elisha is grinning and so am I.

REMOVES HEADDRESS
It’s not the end. I already see God’s hand as I gather my resources. God won’t multiply my money in the same way he multiplied the oil. But He is stretching those resources. And He is already multiplying my hope and faith.

When your resources are at an end
and you feel that you do not have a friend
Your hope is gone your joy is nowhere
You want to reach out and pull the hair

Right out of your head
Your hope is dead
but God is all power and might
In the darkness He is the light

He becomes our provision
As we clear our vision
to see that He’s been there all along
When we are weak He is strong

He waits until we reach our end
We turn the bend
and see He’s there.

I see it's not the end
It's only the beginning
I can see that God is grinning
As He is there for me.

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