God is in This City
Monday (September 29)
God is in This City
1 Samuel 9:5-6
When they came to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, “Come, let us go back, lest my father cease to care about the donkeys and become anxious about us.” But he said to him, “Behold, there is a man of God in this city, and he is a man who is held in honor; all that he says comes true. So now let us go there. Perhaps he can tell us the way we should go.”
Saul and his companion have come a long way in search of runaway donkeys. They’ve journeyed through Ephraim’s hill country—that’s no walk in the park—but with no sign of the hoofed renegades. Then they’ve journeyed through the land of Shalishah, which I’m sure wasn’t a mere two-mile trek around a park greenway. And they’ve kept on going, following a path that leads them further from home. On to Shaalim, and then to Benjamin, and then eventually finding themselves road-weary in the land of Zuph, till the sight of a new frontier leads Saul to count his losses and consider returning home. In a way, they’re now as lost as those hoofed hoodlums, needing direction, finding themselves far from their father, without a roadmap or any clear sense of whether the objects of their search are around the next stretch of road or hundreds of miles in the other direction.
Times like these are where the intricate, inner workings of Providence astound me most. The way God meets our free will, and guides it somehow, and maneuvers it, so that on days where we seem more lost and confused than ever, traveling roads that are foreign and strange to our eyes, we find ourselves right where we’re supposed to be. Oh, friend, don’t belittle that mundane affair you’ve been pre-occupied with this week! Give it your all. If searching for lost donkeys is the work God has placed before your feet, then travel far and wide, over hills and through valleys. Search high and low, and then, when you’ve come to the end of your strength, and the next step is unclear, seek the wise counsel of a close companion, and talk with your pastor, and reach out to your spiritual mentor, and the LORD will give direction. And remember: those donkeys you’re searching for are not lost to your heavenly Father, and neither are you.