 |
| Image Courtesy of Ambro/FreeDigitalPhotos.Net |
And he didn’t miss a beat. The man loved the Lord and carried his calling very seriously. He was dedicated to the Lord by his mother, Hannah, (one of my favorite stories) before he was even born. Raised under the priest, Eli, Samuel recognized God’s voice from a very early age and followed it willingly. He rallied under the passion God had given him to reach Israel and lead them as a Judge.
He pointed them to God. Helped them walk in His ways. Encouraged and uplifted the people with the sole purpose of bringing their focus to God. It was, in essence, his calling.
Except, in all his zeal, could he have missed something?
1 Samuel 8:3 says “…but his sons did not follow in his ways.”
He’d reached an entire nation, but missed his own children.
Now, I have no way of truly knowing if Samuel was a present parent or not. If he spent as much time teaching them about God as he did with Israel, and they simply chose another path. Believe me, I know this happens, and it is heart-wrenching. But as I read the story with my son, caution stepped in. A warning if you will. See, Samuel was so focused on carrying out his calling, that it’s equally as possible he missed bringing it to his family.
How do I know this? Because I am passionate about writing. Can anyone here relate? And writing for the CBA market isn’t strictly about entertainment. We write with a message, with a calling. We write to encourage other Christians and point non-believers to Christ. It’s an amazing purpose that we could so easily lose ourselves in because we see the value of it.
Problem is, the people in our immediate reach are our first mission field. If I write a bestseller that reaches a million plus people for Christ, but I neglect to show Him to my family or lose them in the process, what have I gained? Oh, I desperately want to reach an unsaved world, but not at the cost of my husband feeling neglected or my children never knowing Christ.
Please hear me, I’m not saying we don’t have deadlines, or that God hasn’t called you to write what’s before you. I am saying he’s placed your family around you for such a time as this. That God holds time in his hand, and He’s capable of proportioning it into the perfect amounts if you seek Him over what those are.
And I guess that’s where all this is going. Learning to balance your calling with the people he’s placed in your immediate sphere. Being present in their lives, so they don’t miss the presence of the One who created them. What you share with them is as important as the message you’re typing with hopes of reaching the masses.
Don’t let that calling pull you from the people within arm’s reach.
Pass it on.
 |
| Susan Tuttle |
