“Now the donkeys belonging to Saul’s father Kish were lost, and Kish said to his son Saul, “Take one of the servants with you and go and look for the donkeys.”
1 Samuel 9:3 (NIV)
Saul and his father were having a bad day. Their entire herd of donkeys roamed away and got lost, which would be comparable to losing our wallet, credit cards or cell phone today, since a person’s livestock was a valuable asset back then. So Kush sent his son, Saul, along with a servant to go and search for their lost donkeys.
When they searched but couldn’t find the donkeys anywhere, Saul was ready to give up and return home, but the servant told him to consult the prophet Samuel, who lived in the next town. As they were searching for Samuel, they came across a few women who directed them to the right place. When they met Samuel, he anointed Saul to become the first king of Israel.
God surprisingly planned the whole thing, telling Samuel in advance that the man who comes to his home is to be anointed as king.
What started with runaway donkeys and a search mission, revealed a remarkable destiny for Saul. He also found his father’s herd of donkeys and brought them home, realizing God used their journey of searching to accomplish His purpose in Saul’s life.
Scripture teaches us that God uses the journeys we are on, while trying to solve our problems. He leads us to certain people and one thing leads to another for good. He expects us to trust Him during the journey and He will bring us through it with purpose.
This week started out with some new problem every day. Monday morning began with my cat finding a live mouse in my house, which he cornered in the spare bedroom of my home. After getting rid of the mouse, and calling an exterminator, there was another new little problem to solve every day after that. The next day my doorbell and my TV remote both stopped working, even after changing the battery. After speaking with two different TV customer service agents on the phone, who couldn’t solve the problem, I decided to go get a new TV remote.
The new remote didn’t work either, so I called and spoke to a third agent who had me unplug the ‘HDMI cable’ and then replug it in. He told me how to find the right cable, I did what he said and the problem was solved. The first two agents never suggested unplugging the HDMI cable, so I was thankful for the third agent, who was a blessing, just like the number three.
The next day I came home to find a strange car parked in my driveway, so that I couldn’t pull into my garage. It turned out to be an elderly couple who were visiting a neighbor. They obviously didn’t know that residential driveways are not for public parking. At this point I am asking God what is happening and why do I have a new minor problem every day. Though nothing has been serious or life threatening, it still was very frustrating.
If you’ve ever had a week when not one day has been easy, each of us may react differently, depending on our personality. I found myself living on auto pilot, tackling one hurdle after another, while constantly asking God ‘Why?’ It felt like God’s answer was, “Don’t ask why, just trust Me.”
Our problems won’t end up making us kings or queens, like Saul, but God always has something for us to learn from it. First, I learned what an HDMI cable is and I will know what to do next time. I also learned that if I didn’t have a cat, I wouldn’t even know that a mouse was in my house, and a bigger problem would have developed.
God has good plans and lessons for us to learn through every ‘problem’ we face. We are all interwoven and connected to one another more than we can imagine. There are numerous true stories of how people met their spouses in an unexpected place or situation. People have received renewed hope and developed new friendships through an unexpected crisis. What begins as a problem may even lead to a person’s career direction or a call to ministry.
To sum it all up, sometimes we only see what we’ve lost, but God sees all that He still wants to give us.
Lord, help us to trust that your plans are always good for us in this life and in the life to come. Thank you for blessing us through others and make us a blessing in others’ lives. Amen
