Scripture: “Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.Then the Lord called, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And he said, ‘Here I am!'” (1 Sam. 3:1, 3-4).
On my way to age 50, I woke up and realized I was hearing this old, familiar story in a different way. For as long as I can remember, when I heard the story of God calling little Samuel while he lived with the old priest, Eli, I always identified with Samuel. I was one of those pastors who heard the voice of God as a youth. While I was still much too young to understand the full implications, God called me to serve him as a leader in his church. Similarly, Samuel’s story is about a boy called by God, a boy far too young to understand the full meaning of that call.
But then one day I was 50, and I realized that I no longer identified with little Samuel. I was starting to identify with aging Eli. Here was old Eli, working in the temple for a lifetime, and had God ever spoken so directly to him? Had God ever awakened him in the middle of the night, calling him by his very own name?
Why had God only spoken to this Samuel, a boarder in the Lord’s house, but not to old, experienced, dedicated Eli, nor any of Eli’s children?
Here I am, now having served the Lord as a pastor for over 30 years. Some little upstart shows up, somebody in his early twenties, telling me that God has spoken to him, telling me that God has called. Why did God not speak directly to me? Why does God insist on speaking to someone half my years?
Here is my church, shrinking in membership. Then there is that new church, that young church on the edge of town. Their building is not nearly so nice as ours. They obviously have a less able and less experienced pastor! And yet they grow. Why would God bless their efforts so profusely?
This story of little Samuel and old Eli becomes a story for those of us in the latter stages of our careers. To serve this God means to let this God be God—sovereign. This God is free to bypass us and go to those less experienced, these young upstarts, who do not have our maturity, experience, and wisdom. In each generation, God calls those whom God calls.
Why does God do this? Think about it. One day when I was young, God called me. One day, a long time ago, I was the young upstart. Now, I am the old, accommodated member of the establishment. To keep his church alive, thank God, the Lord goes to a new generation. Maybe God does this to keep shaking things up. Or maybe he does this to keep proving to us that the church is of God, not of us. God keeps sustaining the church by infusing new life into it—by calling people whom we might not have called.
—William Willimon is dean of the chapel and professor of Christian Ministry at Duke University. This column is reprinted from the forthcoming Leadership Devotions, to be published by Tyndale House Publishers (www.tyndale.com) in the spring. To reply, write Newsletter@LeadershipJournal.net.
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