1 Samuel 4:1
And Samuel’s word came to all Israel.
A lot of people want to be famous and they’ll do anything to get there. Need proof? Outside of the overwhelming popularity of shows like “American Idol” and “America’s Got Talent,” a quick look at the number of stupid videos on YouTube that hope to go viral is enough to convince any of us that fame is a carrot for a bunch of people. One of the fastest growing genres of video on YouTube is school fighting, and everyone hopes their fight is seen a million times.
Here in my region, Charlotte has a show called “Gimmie the Mike” and it’s a local “American Idol” wannabe competition. I think the name says it all – if you want to be famous, grab the mike and show us what you’ve got. Be confident, be aggressive, and be better than everyone else (or at least look better, right?). It’s not so much that it’s a bad thing, but I think there’s another way to a life of significance, and it seems that Samuel found it. All we have to do is trace his steps backwards to see what he did that led to the place where everyone listened when he spoke.
Before he spoke to a nation, he spoke to one. Verse 18 of chapter 3 says that he told Eli everything the Lord had revealed to him, that he hid nothing from him, even though the word about Eli wasn’t good news. You know, it’s easy to think about telling the truth to a big crowd of people that we really don’t know, but if we’re going to someday tell a lot of people the truth, then we’ve got to first be willing to tell the truth to the few that we love the most. Do we?
Take a few more steps backwards with me and you’ll see that before Samuel spoke to one, he learned to listen to One. Verse 10 shows us the end of a process in which Samuel learned to hear the voice of God, and it’s kind of a no-brainer that we can’t speak to anyone if we’ve not learned to hear what to say.
One last step backwards – perhaps the biggest step of all – and we’ll learn the foundation that led to fame for Samuel: he served. Way back before there were crowds, before there was a word spoken to him from God and before he spoke that word to Eli, back in the day when people didn’t hear or see a lot about God, there was a boy serving. Verse 1 says that Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli, and if we want to find significance in the kingdom, we’ve got to serve, too.
How do we get famous? Who cares. Why would we settle for something as temporary as fame when we can find lasting significance in the kingdom of God? Of course, to do that we’ll need to stop grabbing the mikes and start grabbing the broom.
Perhaps if we video it, it could go viral.
