Perfection? (02/11/24)
For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition which I asked of Him. (I Sam. 1:27)
In our daydreams many of us imagine ourselves in heroic situations. We feel that we have the capability to become great spouses, …wonderfully understanding parents, consistently dependable co-workers, ready in the most difficult situation to do the right thing regardless of the personal sacrifice required. The Lord challenged us: "Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:48).
Of course we all shout back: "I'm not perfect! Not even close! The truth is that I can't seem to get it right. The harder I try, the more things seem to backfire. Deep down inside my life feels
miserable, barren, empty, and I feel as though things will never really change for the better. With the exception of that last statement, everything else is true. Life is miserable a good part of the time, but it does not follow from this that essential and lasting change is impossible. "With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible!" (Matt. 19:26).
Hannah outlived her season of despair. She did bear a son and dedicate him to the service of the Lord, but a period of several years was required and a process of gradual healing was involved. Her story portrays [stages in our own spiritual development. In this excerpt,
four will be focused on].
Confession was Hannah's turning point, and it can be for us as well. The first step toward renewal
always involves an honest acknowledgment of where we are. This involves the very difficult task of forcing our secret feelings out into the open where we can see them and admit that we have them, or more accurately that they have us! Confession doesn't necessarily have to be made to another person, although the Writings seem to indicate some benefit in this. The important thing is that we confess before the Lord. This accomplishes two things: it identifies how we feel (an amazing number of
people don't know), and it clarifies or prioritizes the feelings we do have. "If anyone is thirsty," the Lord said, "let him come to Me!" Confession is perhaps the most direct way we have of acknowledging our deep thirst.
Communication needs to follow confession because we are not created to live in a vacuum. Love toward the neighbor implies relating to him or her on a regular basis. As we open ourselves to the Lord, striving to be more authentic, we are often confronted by the reactions of others who misjudge the changes in us as uncharacteristic or extreme. When we're already expending much energy to "find
ourselves," it seems to be asking for too much to expect us to make our meaning clear to others. "If they don't understand or if they misjudge, that's their problem."
Well, how another responds to us is their problem, but how we choose to react to their response is still our problem. Imagine if Hannah had simply ignored Eli's false accusation. He probably would have assumed that she was drunk and was too embarrassed to admit it. And she would have added the pain of being misunderstood to all her other hurts. Instead, she spoke up: "'No, my lord. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman. I have been praying here out of my great anguish and
grief.' Eli answered, 'Go in peace. Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast" (vs. 15-18).
If
we could learn to move through these two stages of growth more effectively we would find much relief. The problems would still be there, but we would have the benefit of understanding them better, and would find comfort in the support of others.
Worship may be defined as the first activity of love (see AC 1561). Regular formal worship has its place in stimulating spiritual thoughts, but true spontaneous worship of the heart has miraculous results. "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with your whole heart" (Jeremiah 29:13). When we come before the Lord as a whole being, hiding nothing from Him, then He
is able to deal with us as a whole person. He takes that miserable problem we freely lay before Him and breathes His Eternal Spirit into it so that even the most hopeless looking situation becomes a womb in which new life begins to grow. "In the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, 'because I asked the Lord for him'" (v. 20).
Maturation. The idea is to give new spiritual states the opportunity to develop in secret. When Samuel was born, his father urged Hannah to join the rest of the family in public worship. Hannah refused, saying, "After the boy is
weaned, I will take him and present him before the Lord." How easy it is to spoil tender new states the Lord gives us by subtly drawing attention to ourselves. We [Christians] boast too much, and our misplaced zeal often does more harm than good. Everyone grows at his or her unique pace. A glowing "progress report" by one individual might be very depressing to another who is wrestling with very different issues. And there is the ever-present spiritual danger of over-confidence on our part.
Perhaps this explains why, when the Lord performed a miracle for someone, He so often warned, "See that you tell no one!"
Dedication is really a matter of "weaning" or separating what is the Lord's from what is our own. It's ironic that the more we cling to life, the less we get out of it. If Hannah had kept Samuel to herself, he would no doubt have remained an average child. Instead he grew up to be the greatest and wisest of all the judges, single-handedly restoring order and peace to his people. In this, his extraordinary human contribution, Samuel merely pre-figured that Divine Child who was to
be born, upon whose shoulders alone the government of all people to eternity would rest.
How else can He govern us but through that
renewal of innocence which is from Him and, is Himself! "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:3). May we pray that this birth of innocence take place in each of our hearts. (NCL, King, 1989)
