* Saturday, 2/7/09, Day 87, Judges 16:1-10, 16-30, In what areas are you living up to your potential? In what areas are you falling short?

(Get some popcorn, because it's gonna be kinda long...but hopefully, the thought processes will be worth the read x].)

Samson's story. I remember as a little kid, I used to hear the cleaned-up version of this man. Very strong and handsome...tricked by the mean girl Delilah, lost all his muscles, went blind because he got old, then knocked down the building and he and God won. Upon rereading this passage, my reaction was completely different from the one I had as an eight-year old reading a picture book. Instead, Samson was a foolish, lusty man who couldn't control himself. He got played (THREE times!! wow, the guy REALLY couldn't take a hint...) by a lover he wasn't married to...got his eyes gouged out and was enslaved. And the way Samson went out; collapsing a building with his oppressors, killing himself in the process.

It's actually astounding me that God would choose him to be one of the twelve judges to lead His people... I can imagine, God gave Samson a blessing, and He might've used it to impress his "lady friends"...misuse of God's gifts, much? Samson foolishly idolized a woman, and as a result God's blessing (which was his physical strength) left him. Not only that, the Bible says "He awoke from his sleep...but he did not know that the Lord had left him."(16:20). Samson was not even aware that he had violated God's special blessing... Kind of makes me afraid of all the things that we do that hurt God yet we are unaware of it.

The piece of redemption though comes through in the moments of pathetic and utter weakness. Completely humiliated and blinded as consequence of his sin, he goes back to God. It shocked me at first that Samson's prayer didn't show any words of regret, but then the thought occurred to me: after completely disobeying and abandoning God, to go back to an almighty and holy God is a humbling experience in itself. Undeserving, Samson asks for his strength back so could do what he should have done with it; give God glory. His final act results in his own death, but it's glorifying God. At the party where the god of the Philistines is being praised for overcoming the Israelite God, Samson shows them the strength that only God can give.

wow this is/was long...but I guess as closure: what am I doing to glorify God? Am I using His blessings for my own gain or for His glorification? If I'm not, am I even aware of what I'm doing? Will it take me to lose everything like Samson to realize what God wants from me? (for the last NOT rhetorical question xD...) I really believe that God will bring us down to our nothingness, and I need to recognize that without God, I am absolutely nothing. In my weakness though, He makes me strong.