Stalled out.
One foot slides forward, the other stays put as the drumbeat of the first verse echoes back, and I stand straddling the text.
I set aside the online Bible, as much as I love my Biblegateway.com. The feel of worn paper better moves in my heart. So I reach for my leatherbound and push fingertips over the words.
Turning pages fails to drown out the drumming while words march in straight lines and the ground rumbles beneath my feet with the rhythm.
The rhythm.
:: (more…)
Categories: grace · redemption · sacrifice
Tagged: redemption, Rest, rhythm, Samson
Samson.
The world was not worthy of him.
So says the writer of Hebrews, bringing me back around to consider just how it was that Samson found himself amongst the honorable mentions in that great Hall of Faith.
For all the desire to which his eyes wandered, for all the rage that rushed through his veins, for all the destruction his vengeful hands wrought, and for all the self he was content to worship, Samson at last found his moment.
And then we see.
We see how this prodigal, shaved and shamed, unearthed faith before he buried the Philistines.
There came a day, Samson’s last, when in faith he brought the house down. (more…)
Categories: Samson · faith
Tagged: faith, Hall of Faith, Hebrews 11, Samson
Shocking, I know. But I’ve never been a girly-girl.
Photos like this one, with hair fresh out of curlers and frills on dress sleeves, belie the child who wanted blue instead of pink and chose hand-me-downs from a big brother over those of an older sis.
I played with dolls because we had them, but much preferred building forts and climbing trees in the woods behind our house. When I did play dolls with my sister and her friends, my make-believe role most often permitted me to take my assigned doll with me into the woods, making an occasional appearance just to stay in the game.
My sister had a much better grip on the doll thing. One year she received the coveted Crissy doll, a beautiful girl with stunning red hair. But Crissy also had a mysterious hole in her head and an unsightly button at the small of her back, there by design rather than defect.
The wonder of this doll was her growing hair.
A girl could tug Crissy’s hair, and long locks would emerge from the cavity in her head. Press the button on her back, the hair sucked back into her plastic cranium and she sported a pageboy instead.
Everything else about Crissy was pretty run-of-the-mill doll business. When it came to the Crissy doll, it was all about the hair.
But when it comes to Samson, it was never about the hair.
There. I said it.
I’ve been wanting to say that for months.
:: (more…)
Categories: Love Trust Obey · Samson
Tagged: Love Trust Obey, Samson
Not long ago my son informed me that I was still talking about Samson out here. He pointed out that I’d been doing that since, when? Summer?
Yeah, something like summer.
“I don’t even read it now, Mom,” he said. “You’re not funny anymore.”
I don’t worry too much. I still catch him reading when he thinks I’m not looking. And blog or not, he never seems to run out of reasons to laugh at me.
But he’s right. Samson is starting to seem like forever.
The problem is, I can’t shake him off. Every time I think I’m about there, it’s something else. I finally got to give him his haircut, and there’s still more before he brings the house down in his big finale.
It’s like this: Samson never did ask a lot of questions after his riddle backfired.
But he sure keeps making me ask them.
Samson has become for me a looking glass. And every time I see something foul in him, I see my own eyes staring back. I see the work God still wants to do in me. Work I need Him to do in me.
And now he’s done it again.
Here’s the question: If all the fullness of God drained out and left me vacant, would I know?
How would I know?
And when would I notice?
:: (more…)
Categories: God' Presence · God's glory · Samson
Tagged: ark of the covenant, Eli, God's presence, Samson
Samson has a new girlfriend.
And now we can understand why those Sunday School lessons were so adamant about students learning to stay away from sneaky girls.
Only, really? I’m not so sure that Delilah was sneaky. She seemed pretty forthright about her intentions. Oh, sure, she didn’t tell Samson that the Philistines had offered her a bulging purse and were hiding in the room every time she tied him up. But she left no question that she sought the secret of his strength only to ensure his capture.
She told him so.
So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.” (Judges 16:6)
What about her motive remained hidden?
::
It’s good to sleep with the lights off.
At my house, it helps dispel that nagging sense of being watched.
A few years ago I saw my ophthalmologist for a solution to some headaches that seemed to originate behind my right eye. I rejected the notion that they were tension related or migraines, more out of defiance than anything else.
He reminded me of how people my age start to have trouble focusing, and set me up in some old-people glasses. I was as defiant about the bifocals as I was the migraine. When I pressed him because I was not having any vision changes except when my head hurt, and that mostly related to an eyelid that couldn’t support itself, he dug a little deeper.
I left his office with a bottle of goo to squirt into that eye to help bring moisture to a dry band running across my cornea.
As it turns out, one of my motherhood trademarks is not just figurative.
I do, in fact, sleep with one eye open.
:: (more…)
Categories: Obedience · Samson · Sin · Strength
Tagged: conviction, Samson, Sin
Have you been around long enough to know that Judges is just not safe for me?
Tiptoe as I might, I will one day trip over my own feet and spend some time stretched out with my face in the dirt trying to sort out why on earth God worked like He did.
Or works like He does.
Or is Who He is.
If this is new to you, welcome.
Every now and again, it’s what we do here.
It’s time.
:: (more…)
Categories: God's Plan · Samson
Tagged: God's Plan, pride, Samson
You’re right, the post title is intentionally misleading.
I only have one idea for what to do with a whole bunch of fox tails. It’s been done, and I’m not sure how cool it was.
But I’ve read that list-posts are popular with readers and I’m all about making you happy. So I figured, why not?
What could it hurt if I didn’t deliver the goods?
It’s not like anybody would get mad and take three hundred foxes, tie their tails together, start them on fire and set them loose in my back yard.
Nah, nobody would ever do something like that.
Except, I suppose, maybe Samson . . .
He might just be crazy enough to do something like that.
:: (more…)
Categories: Forgiveness · Samson
Tagged: Forgiveness, revenge, Samson
This set-apart stuff can sure go to a guy’s head.
Make a guy a Nazirite and give him awesome hair, and Wham! The whole world revolves around him.
It started with a harmless riddle between a bridegroom and his wedding party.
It turned into death threats, a sobbing bride, and Samson kicking the snot out of 30 guys so he could take their clothes and pay his wager.
All because an arrogant fool couldn’t grasp his calling.
:: (more…)
Categories: Humility · Samson · Strength · The Cross
Tagged: Humility, Power, Samson, Strength, The Cross
::
My coworkers and I paraded to the cafeteria yesterday and stood in a herd like so many cattle. You’d think we never eat. But the cooks whipped up homemade caramel rolls just the way we like them — warm and free — to kick off the annual Combined Appeal (think: small town United Way) campaign.
When it was this glutton’s turn at the table, I took tongs in hand and felt electricity rack my arm. I tried in vain to hold in the guttural half-scream that left my throat. A nearby coworker jumped away as I jerked my hand back but was unable to rid myself of the utensil, now one with my hand.
Caramel Rolls + Hungry Workers = Sticky Tongs
I seized up.
Once done making my scene, I pulled the tongs from my palm, handed off my plate and slunk to the kitchen to rinse the offending glop down the drain.
I’m not a germophobe. I’m not even particularly neat or tidy. And I don’t live in a spotless home.
But sticky does something deep inside me.
It immobilizes.
So, when Samson stuck his powerful paw into honeycomb the bees created inside a lion’s carcass, I started to twitch.
:: (more…)
Categories: God's Word · Samson
Tagged: God's Word, honey, lion, Samson
Worth a Look 
Recently at the High Calling Blogs
