It Was Of The Lord

    When we walk with Christ we constantly place our faith over many things which seem true. We place faith over selfishness when ‘me’ seems crucial. We place faith over experience when the Bible says one thing and experience screams otherwise. When faith says forgive we do. When faith says pray we do. When faith says all things work together for good---they do.

In the story of Samson, recounted in Judges, Samson falls for a Philistine girl and says to his parents, “She’s a hottie. Get her for me. Yeah, baby (14:4).” Then the writer puts in this little note, “his father and mother did not know it was of the Lord.”

I’ve spent the last week wrestling with this concept for various reasons. Think about it. Did God authorize Samson to pursue a relationship outside his tribe? Outside his Jewishness? There is more active here than passive. The text indicates something beyond God’s knowledge of the event. No, somehow God allowed or caused the process for His own glory and the good of Israel. How do Samson’s lust for a hottie with a body and God’s calling Samson from the womb fit together? I’m still wrestling.

The greater concept here is that things that are happening and have happened to us are ‘of the Lord.’ Those terrible decisions and dark failures are working together (still) for good. The deep hurts and scars that we’ve only told God about; those are of the Lord too. The great joys we face and the rich blessings that are so good we feel guilty about them---those too.

Each of us walks through doubt and darkness that are unique to us alone. God has adopted us and loved us deeply. Misgivings rise up triggered in part by our own brokenness; fueled by an enemy that knows the buttons to push and the images to flash.

We walk by faith and not sight. Sight was the hottie in our youth. Sight is the way the dark closes in on us today. Faith is God saying, “Do not fear; for I am with you.” All of it is of the Lord and He will cause it to work for good if we are His.