What are you doing here?

What are you doing here?

In one of this week's lectionary reading -- 1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a -- Elijah is exhausted.  He's afraid.  He travels a long way and sits down under a broom tree, ready to die.    An angel comes and ministers to him.  Elijah gains strength and then travels for 40 days into the wilderness.  He ends up in a cave in Horeb, the Mount of God.

God says to him, "What are you doing here?"

It made me wonder.  Has God led him to this place?  Is it God's leading that brings him to this wilderness place for an encounter with the divine?  So that he can have a better understanding of God?  If so, is God asking him this question to see if Elijah is ready for what is about to happen?  Aware of God's plan?  Prepared?

Or, even after revival under the broom tree, has Elijah continued to run away from ministry?  Is God exasperated with him?  "What are you doing here?  Why aren't you back at work?"  Is God frustrated?

Whichever it is, are there times when you wonder "What am I doing here?"  Whether God has led you to a place, and you are looking around, perplexed, or you have led you to a place, and you are looking around, wondering why you are where you are?

What are you doing here?