Anyway, my reason for writing again, is what I just read in my devotions. For some reason I really wanted to read the part in 1 Samuel that the Lord calls Samuel. Whenever I think of this story I always go back to the old days-- when Zach and I were basically the only kids in the Williams family. Caleigh was just a baby really, although she was probably a part of this too. We used to do plays and skits for our parents all the time. We would usually do Bible stories. We learned to never do the ones that made us laugh hysterically (i.e. the ones that have us going crazy and pretending to steal candy from the store. We thought it was great, but my mom didn't). My mom didn't usually laugh when we did. She told us once we should do Bible stories. And Lo. I became Mary, complete with Hebrew garb. I delivered baby Jesus, and somehow Zach was Joseph. But hey, inter family marriage was a little more common back then.
So one of our plays later was of the stories of Samuel and Eli. Zach got the glorious role of Samuel. I think my dad might have even helped us and played the voice of God. My voice certainly wasn't deep enough at 5 years of age. Zach sported his red black and blue robe that our Noni (great grandma) had made him, as was the "custom" of the times in our little heads. And so we performed the Bible stories and basked in the glory of our coveted mother's approval.
So tonight, in light of the things I've been thinking of since chapel this morning, I wanted to read something about when God "calls" people. So naturally I thought of Samuel and Eli.
What made me kinda pause as I was reading, was that Samuel was in bed when God called his name! Literally! What I wrote of in my earlier blog was metaphoric-- us being "asleep and in bed" and God calling us to "wake up" in a way. But this story... Samuel was in bed! First Samuel 3 verse 4 says Samuel was lying down in the temple. And although he did not realize it was actually God calling his name, and not Eli, the Bible says "Samuel answered 'Here I am' and he ran to Eli and said, 'Here I am; you called me." He ran. He didn't even know why he was called. But he ran.
In reference to my earlier blog... I didn't even tread the area of jumping to the land of the awakened... I simply contemplated the fact of obeying our alarm clocks. But what if we literally jumped out of bed at the sound of our alarm clocks? I'm speaking metaphorically.
Samuel did not know it was God calling his name. 1 Samuel 3:7 says "Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord. The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him." This verse makes me think a little deeper than the fact that Samuel did not KNOW God. In chapel this morning, the pastor talked about the difference between KNOWING God and FOLLOWING God and all that.
Well, isn't it interesting that after three times of going to Eli in response to God's call, and finally realizing it was God and not Eli, Samuel responded right away to his name being called. He did not yet know God, but was willing to follow Him.
And also, this shows an example of how sometimes it takes us a while to recognize God's voice. Like that nagging thing that won't go away in someone's life... it's seen as an annoyance until that person realizes maybe there's a Godthing happening here that he's missing. So maybe sometimes we don't respond to our "alarm clocks" because we're not sure if it really is our alarm clocks or not. We might still think it's still time to be asleep. We don't always know it really is time to get up! But I guess the point is, once you know it really is time to get up, you gotta get up. And get up fast. Ready to follow. And so good night!
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