1 Samuel 8

So you've given everything you are to a mission. You've poured out your heart to God and given yourself completely to His will. You've led led with everything in you, and still, someone rejects your efforts. Someone rejects you. That must have been how Samuel felt.

From the time he was weaned, he was dedicated to serve God. Raised by a wicked leader and incompetent example, he himself even raised sons that shamed him. He had sacrificed so dearly to the call God placed on his life from the time he first heard Him in the middle of the night as a boy, that now, he had no legacy among his people. Nothing on his own list of accomplishments.

Except of course that he got a support role in God's story. Although Samuel has a big chunk of it named after him, he was never the real star. Samuel was always serving at the whim of a mysterious and awesome God. And no matter how precious he was to his Creator, he was no longer of any use to his people. And so they asked for a king. To be like everyone else. To fill a need they only perceived was necessary. To succeed Samuel, but to replace God.

When you have poured yourself out to serve God and yet people still reject you, you're not the first and you certainly won't be the last. But the most heartbreaking part of the story is that Samuel wasn't being rejected at all. It was God they were turning their backs on. They had their loving Maker for a leader and they picked a fallible human instead. All I can tell myself, and you, if you've felt this was too, is don't take it personally. You are who God says you are. I know my calling. I heard it in a whisper one night just like Samuel.

But instead of the easy route of identifying with the righteous character, what about putting myself in the Israelites' shoes. How do I reject God as my king? In what ways do I choose to follow another? How can I remove all layers of bureaucracy between me and the One who wants to be my King so I can serve Him purely? I don't want that list of bad things to happen to me. So how can I crown Him King of each and every day?