November 17, 2006 Daily-ish Readings

Readings: II Samuel 8-9, Psalm 137, I Corinthians 4
II Samuel: The calm before the storm. David is doing so well, and God is giving him victory wherever he goes. I so do not want to read my next reading, which includes chapter 11. Why can't David just be a good king and not go to that nasty place?

I Corinthians 4: Verses 1 & 2: "So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful."

One of the kids in my youth group, Michael Campbell, asked me over the summer which character in the Lord of the Rings I wanted to be. I thought for a moment. I wanted, so much, to be Frodo or Aragorn, and I told Michael that. But I also added that I knew that I only wanted to be Aragorn for the power, and therefore should not be Aragorn. I thought some more and said that I guess the person I wish I could emulate (because I often don't) was Samwise Gamgee. Why? Because Sam got it. Sam realized that the story was not about him or his Gaffer. He knew the story was about Frodo and Aragorn. The story was about destroying the ring and restoring the true king to power. Sam never tried to take the ring for himself or become the hero. He did his best to serve his Master Frodo. My favorite line of the movie is when Sam picks Frodo up and says, "I cannot carry the ring for you, but I can carry you!" (I'm getting goose bumps as I write it.)

So often, we tend to look at our lives and view ourselves as the hero of the story. We are our own protagonists--we think. I realize now that we are wrong. God is the protagonist of this story we call life. God is the Hero. Satan is the villain. We are but servants of the Most High, and we should operate as such because this story of life is not about us.

I am Sam. That's what I continue to tell myself. I am Sam, and I will do whatever it takes and go wherever I am asked to go in order to help my master defeat the villain.