A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, "You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of
We have seen this story in many forms already in our journey through the Bible. Jesus was born with a purpose. John the Baptist was born with a purpose. And so too was Sampson.
But what does that mean for you and me?
Are we all born with some particular God given purpose? What if we don’t want to fulfill this purpose? Then what? Do we have to walk that path anyway? Or maybe the tapestry of our choices is weaved in such away that no matter what we choose we will end up being the art that God created us to be.
Or perhaps this purpose thing is all nonsense. Maybe this is all hindsight. Maybe the stories are written so clearly because they were written after the deeds were done. People do what they do and then try to make sense of it later right?
This is a timeless question… choice versus destiny. Which one is true?
And you know what I figured out… it doesn’t really matter. I do believe that truth is an objective reality; so maybe one side of the debate is right and the other wrong. Or perhaps neither side is capable of grasping the infinitely large picture of existence.
But in the end we still have to wake up everyday. We still have to live our lives. So rather than being stuck on this question of who is pulling the strings, I choose to do all that I can with the power that I have to be the best that I can be.
When it’s all said and done I am confident that this will give me the best of both worlds. I will have lived my life the best way I saw fit; and it will have been a life that hopefully put a smile on God’s face.
Today’s Reading: Judges 13-15; Luke 6:27-49
Great Piece! I believe that we create our own experiences through the choices that we make. God gives us all gifts, abilities, tools that when recognized and used in the proper way could lead us to great things. I truly believe that God's intention is to let us choose and each time we make the right choice, we are blessed, sometimes blessings in disguise. You know what though what is important is the Goodness, we just need to always seek and follow that.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing!
Mari