1 Samuel 17:55-58

1 Samuel 17:55-58

English Standard Version 

  Often, people get ignored until it turns out they do something famous.  Perhaps people ignore someone, thinking they're not worth their time, but then they learn that the person is famous or noteworthy, and suddenly they're very interested, despite the fact that nothing has really changed.

  You'd think this was the first that Saul had heard of David.  But do you remember when, earlier this very chapter, Saul was trying to dress David in Saul's armor?  They'd met earlier, before David slew Goliath, but Saul wasn't interested in learning about David then.  It was only after David killed Goliath that Saul suddenly was interested in his heritage.

  May we be humble enough that we treat people equally, no matter how famous they may be.  They could do something remarkable in the future... or they might not.  Either way, may we treat each other like the precious sons and daughters of God that they are.  

1 Samuel 17:45-47

1 Samuel 17:45-47 

English Standard Version 

  I love this speech from David.  You can hear his passion for the Lord.  He will fight to defend the Lord's honor, and he has complete trust in God.  The battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand!  May that same spirit fill us and lead us in all we do!

1 Samuel 17:38-40

1 Samuel 17:38-40 

English Standard Version 

  Here is Saul, looking at David and amazed at his boldness, and then he gives David his armor, which overwhelms the boy.  David instead opts to go with just his staff in one hand and his sling in the other.  Saul's ways are not for David.  

  We can sense Saul fading away.  Saul is afraid, hiding from Goliath, and when David is ready to fight, Saul is giving away his armor.  Saul is the king and ought to be leading the charge, fighting Goliath himself, but he willingly hands his armor over to a boy.  Saul has no fight in him, only fear. 

  May we, like David, find out own path forward.  May we listen to where the Holy Spirit is calling us, and follow the individual path God sets before us.  Others may not understand it, others may not recommend it, but God has called us uniquely and equipped us in specific ways for the things that we will face.  Another's armor will not suit us.  We are each fearfully and wonderfully made.

1 Samuel 17:9-11

1 Samuel 17:9-11 

English Standard Version 

  The story of David and Goliath is always told from the perspective of David as the hero, but we forget that Saul was involved as well.  Saul was still king of Israel, and while David was dismayed that Goliath would insult Israel and their God, Saul was merely afraid.  As much as David succeeded, Saul failed, because he opted for fear rather than boldness.  Saul had seen what God could do, and yet he didn't trust in that, because he looked at himself rather than God, and because his eyes were focused on the wrong place, Saul was afraid.  Saul's fear paralyzed him, which created an opening for David, a man of faith after God's own heart, to choose action because he trusted in God.

  The warning here for us is to keep our eyes focused on God.  When we let our hearts hear the melodies of God's power and love, we are in tune with God and then are not afraid of the things that threaten us.  When we let our lives bend according to God's will, we find strength we didn't know we had, because it isn't our own -- it belongs to God, and God will sustain and support us.  When we rely on God, the words of Goliath do not cause us to fear, because we know who holds the heavens and earth.

1 Samuel 15:10-11

1 Samuel 15:10-11 

English Standard Version 

  There are situations that are simply tragic.  The people wanted a king, and so God reluctantly agreed to give them a king, despite warning them that it wouldn't end well.  Here we are, not much later, and it's not ending well.  Saul doesn't follow the commandments of God, and the people are suffering because of it.  What I appreciate is Samuel's devotion.  Samuel is the prophet, and he serves as the intermediary between the people and God.  Samuel sees the pain unfolding, and he weeps for the people, and he weeps for the brokenness in the people and in their relationship.  Samuel sees where things are going, and he weeps.

  When we see the heartbreak in the world, may we care enough to do the same.  It's easy to be callous, to stop seeing the ways the world is broken, to not notice how much pain there is.  We all have enough on our plate, we don't want to take on the suffering of others.

  But that's not the kind of life we are called into.  We're called to be in relationships with people around us, and to let the things of the world break our hearts the same way they break God's heart.  May we continue to care deeply about the people in the world, that we care enough to be involved, to pray for solutions, and to work for peace.

Psalm 33:1-5

Psalm 33:1-5 

English Standard Version 

  I do believe that God delights in creation -- we get that sense in Genesis, when God rests when it is complete, and we find that again in Job, when God is speaking of the wondrous things that God has made.  In Revelation, when creation has been renewed, there is an amazing claim that there will not need to be any light, for God himself will be the light of the people.  

  The reality of sin is working against God's order in creation, and we all have a choice as to where we want to direct the attention of our hearts.  We can choose to praise God and meditate on God's good works, or we can pursue false idols or a life of materialism.  The challenging thing about the choice is that it's rarely crystal clear -- I don't think people wake up and decide they're going to pursue an idol.  We drift into it, making choices unconsciously, doing what is easy or goes along with the mainstream.

  When we praise God, we make the intentional choice to focus on God's faithfulness, on God's righteousness, on God's justice.  In doing so, we let the steadfast love of God fill us, and then it flows through us into the lives of those around us, and we join with God in working towards the new creation.

In the Heart of the Sea

   Well, I finished Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea, the true story of the Essex, the ship that inspired Moby Dick.  It was... hard to read. It's hard to imagine what the whaling life was like -- captains and the crew would leave for two year voyages around Cape Horn to search for whales in the Pacific Ocean before returning to their Nantucket base.  And reading about the process for killing and disassembling a whale is somewhat stomach churning, even if I've read about it in other books.  I always end up feeling sorry for the whale.  

  Ultimately, what makes this so hard to read is the trial endured by the cast members after a whale rams the Essex and it sinks far from land.  They are initially divided up into 3 whaleboats, and the captain makes the wrong decision to sail for South America rather than Tahiti.  They were worried about rumors of cannibals in the Marquesas Islands, and Philbrick does a good job explaining how this incorrect information likely led to the death of several crewmembers who probably would have survived had they sailed west to the Islands rather than making the long journey east.  The harrowing accounts of life in a whaleboat for months with few resources and increasingly desperate crewmembers is sad and tragic.  

  Here's hoping for some lighter material in the next few books!

1 Samuel 13:8-12

1 Samuel 13:8-12 

English Standard Version 

  Saul was scared.  He wasn't allowed to offer the burnt offering, but he saw the people starting to waver, and in the heat of the moment, he decided to do what he thought made the most sense, ignoring the command from God.  Under pressure, he thought God was too distant, too hard to see, and so he chose to ignore God and follow his own senses.  

  Unfortunately, those senses led him astray.  He failed the test.  He was called to wait, to trust in God, to learn how to depend on God, despite worldly signs indicating trouble, but he couldn't.  He only could trust in his own abilities.

  This test lands in our lap from time to time.  Can we learn to trust in God, even if it looks like God won't come through.  God is ultimately reliable, and eternally dependable, even if God doesn't always answer our prayers the way that we want God to do so.  We still are called to trust in God.  Our own senses will fail and betray us... but God never will.

FOMO and the Gospel

1 Samuel 12:19-25

1 Samuel 12:19-25 

English Standard Version 

  So the people come to Samuel, and they realize that they've done wrong, and they implore Samuel to pray for them.  Samuel agrees to do so, because he feels an obligation to the people.  He warned them about the consequences of their actions, but he is still bound to them.  

  May we think of the people in our lives with the same spirit.  We see others make mistakes.  We see them go wrong, even when we warned them.  And yet, we are knit together.  We are one people, and we have an obligation to care for one another, to love one another, to serve one another.  May we continue to pray for God to lead us closer to one another, and may we have the humility to stay in community as we all continue to grow together.

1 Samuel 10:25-27

1 Samuel 10:25-27 

English Standard Version 

  This time of year, at the end of the baseball season, plenty of baseball managers may be fired.  The Reds have already fired their manager, although I don't think he's personally responsible for how bad the team was.  Ownership didn't exactly give him the team he needed.  But they needed someone to blame, even if it wasn't the right person.  

  Saul's reign is off to an auspicious beginning.  He's been caught hiding when he was about to be proclaimed king, and now there are some in the crowd wondering how Saul can save them.  

  Can Saul save them?  Did he ever possess that potential?  It's hard to say.  Saul's leadership goes so wrong, but I think there was a chance. 

  These fellows, however, are asking the wrong question.  Saul was never meant to be the deliverer.  That is God's role.  God is the one who could save Israel.  Unfortunately, the people had stopped looking to God.

  We often do as well.  We look to the world around us, looking for something else to deliver us, something visible, rather than turning to God.  It's much harder to trust in God some days, but God is the only truly reliable power in the universe that has power to transcend death.  Who else are you going to trust?