Worthwhile lives are made, not born. No one gets to get be
great just by dumb luck or by the genes they inherited.
Worthwhile people, trustworthy people, respected people are
made. They are formed. They are shaped. Somebody has
to take raw material and shape it into something useful. It
does not just happen on its own.
I’ve learned from watching my artist wife that if you are
painting a landscape or if you are creating a sculpture, you
have to take pains with it. You have to sketch and erase and
sketch again and paint and paint over. And sculpture – that
is a real mystery to me. I cannot fathom how anybody could
shape a sculpture. How can anyone take a hammer and a
chisel and remove unwanted stone to create a sculpture out
of marble? It takes a special genius to do that. Do you know
the story about Michelangelo, who said that he could sense
that in a rough block of marble there was an angel struggling
to get out, and his job was to free that angel? Truly
remarkable! To know that in that rough exterior there was
something beautiful, available for shaping.
But then how much more remarkable it is to know that inside
your rough exterior and mine there is a life available for
shaping! And all it takes is submitting to an artist who can
sense that it is in there and can cut it loose. How much more
wonderful than one of Michelangelo’s stone angels is a life
made superb by the hand of its sculptor! It’s a question of
our being available for life-shaping.
For worthwhile lives are made, not born. Trustworthy people
are hammered out, not just there. And respected people are
shaped, not just accidents. Lives are molded and shaped by
those around us who care enough to sculpt us, and we must
be available for life-shaping.
The boy Samuel was born in a troubled time. The Bible
describes it as one in which the word of the Lord was rare
and visions were not widespread. It was a troubled time.
But Samuel, if you remember, was born to his mother
Hannah and his father Elkanah as the result of Hannah’s
prayer. Hannah cried out to the Lord to give her a child, and
God heard that prayer. Samuel was the result. His grateful
parents dedicated him to the service of God. They loved him
so much they sent him to the temple at Shiloh to be trained
as an aide to the priest Eli. Samuel, there in the temple with
Eli, became, like Michelangelo’s angel, available for life-
shaping.
I have four simple truths I want you to see in this story. Let
me share them first and then develop each one. We can be
available for life-shaping if we downplay disappointment; if
we pick perceptive people; if we consider the consequences;
and if we accept affirmation.
I am going to repeat those. We can be available for life-
shaping – we can become worthwhile, trustworthy, and
respected people – if we downplay disappointment; if we pick
perceptive people; if we consider consequences; and if we
accept affirmation.
I
First, to be available for life-shaping means to downplay
disappointment. It means to discount those times when you
feel as though you are heading down a dead-end street, or
barking up the wrong tree, or whatever other metaphor you
choose. The fact is that it takes time to shape a life, and we
are going to start some things that won’t pay off for a while.
But we have to stick with them and downplay
disappointment, or else we will not be shaped.
Young Samuel heard a voice calling, and he said, “Here I
am”. He said that to Eli, who told Samuel that it was not he
who called. A little later he heard it again, and once again
went to Eli, who once more told Samuel that, no, the priest of
Shiloh had not called. And then a third time, the same thing.
But look! Young Samuel kept on going back and kept on
saying, “Here I am”, despite the disappointment of finding out
that he was mistaken. Samuel didn’t give up. He didn’t
surrender to his disappointment. He knew that he was in the
right place, the house of the Lord. He knew that he was with
the right person, the Lord’s servant. Most of all, he knew his
own mind, and he stayed by the stuff. It would have been
easy on that third time to have said, “I must be hearing
things. I’ll ignore this call. I’ll just give up on this thing.” But
Samuel didn’t grow up. Samuel downplayed his
disappointment, and thus became available for life-shaping.
Some of us, if we don’t get immediate results, are ready to
give up. If we come to church and the preacher doesn’t
rouse us to a frenzy, we’re out of there. If we attend a Bible
study, and the teacher doesn’t dazzle us with some new
revelation, we don’t come back. Some of us even join the
church and then after a few weeks get tired and sit it out at
home because, well, I went over there two whole months,
and look at me: I didn’t grow at all.
But that’s like going to a fine restaurant, eating the appetizer,
and walking out before the steak and potatoes are served,
and then complaining that you’re still hungry. That’s like
going to your closet in the morning, putting on your
underwear, but stepping out into the chill morning air without
slacks or shoes and complaining that it’s cold out here. Life-
shaping is what we are talking about. That takes time. Not
a Sunday morning buzz. Not a thrill a minute. Not ranting
and raving rhetoric that rouses us to rare up on our hind
legs. Not mellifluous musical melodies that mesmerize us.
We are here for life-shaping, and that will take time. It will
take commitment. And most of all, it will take downplaying
our disappointments.
I can assure you of one thing: if you stay around here long
enough, you will be disappointed. You will find something to
dislike. You will get bent out of shape by somebody if you
hang out here for a while. But the glory of the Gospel is that
“even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. He
stays with us even when we disappoint Him. And so we
need to stay with one another, even when we don’t measure
up, even when we disappoint each other.
Stay around long enough, and you will be disappointed. But
stay a little longer, and you will find your life being shaped.
Keep on answering, “Here I am”, and even when it feels like
they don’t want you and they don’t care about you, eventually
it will begin to happen. Downplay disappointment and you
will be available for life-shaping.
II
But if you downplay the disappointment and keep on
answering “Here I am” when the call goes out, you’ll find that
you will need to pick perceptive people to help you interpret
what is happening in your life. You will need to trust
somebody with what is going on in your heart, and you would
do well to pick up a perceptive person, who senses the mind
of Christ and is not afraid to talk about it. If you are to be
truly available for life-shaping, it will not come because you
just listen to yourself. Nor will it come because you listen to
your fan club. It will come if you listen to perceptive,
sensitive, candid people.
When Samuel heard that persistent call for the third time,
and went in to tell Eli, the Bible says that “Eli perceived” –
there’s a key word – “Eli perceived that the Lord was calling
the boy.” And so Eli instructed Samuel what to do.
Pick perceptive people. That means people who are more
than well-educated, although that’s good. It means people
who are more than just kind-hearted, although that’s fine.
But picking a perceptive person means finding somebody
who will speak the truth in love, somebody who can sense
what is going on with you, and who is not afraid to say so.
Actually it means finding someone who is so comfortable in
his own skin that he has long since gotten over the need to
be liked by everybody. She can just tell the truth, but in love.
If you want to be available for life-shaping, surround yourself
with people who love you enough to dig out your faults.
This week I was looking over the commencement program
from Fuller Theological Seminary, where Yolanda – excuse
me, the Reverend Sampson – graduated. And I saw that
I know several people on the faculty – refugees from the
stuff that is going on at our Southern Baptist seminaries!
Among those names was one of my old professors, now
retired. Sam Southard was the toughest of the tough. When
I sat down in his class on the Psychology of Religion, I
expected to learn a load of psychological theory and to be
given a bag of pastoral tricks to use with hurting people.
What I got from Sam Southard was a scathing, probing,
pressing interrogation about my personality, my motives, and
my fears. I was so scared of Sam Southard that I dropped
his class and took the course later from another professor.
But the stuff that Sam Southard exposed in my heart in just
three or four weeks in his classroom was enough to shatter
my illusions about who I was and then start me on the road
to who I might become. I had picked a perceptive person. I
didn’t stay with him – see, sad to say, I didn’t downplay my
disappointment – but his perception mattered, just the same.
Out here, for you, there is somebody who knows you better
than you know yourself. Out here there is somebody who
understands you better than you will admit. Pick that person
and tell him or her your heart. If he or she is mature, and not
afraid of his own popularity, you will have a painful but rich
experience. And it will make you available for life-shaping.
III
But now at this point in your journey, if you have downplayed
disappointment and stayed by the stuff to let God shape you;
and if you have picked a perceptive person to interpret for
you what is going on in your life, you will be tempted to stop
short. You will be tempted to say, “That’s enough. I know all
I need to know now. I can quit studying. I can stop growing.
Don’t want any more change, Lord.” You will be tempted to
level off your spiritual growth. That’s when you need to
consider the consequences. That’s when you need to think
about what will happen if your spiritual life stagnates and
your relationship with God freezes up. Consider the
consequences.
Samuel acknowledged the Lord in his life, and opened up to
God. And when he did, the Lord warned him about what was
going to happen with Eli and with Eli’s sons. Eli’s sons had
played fast and loose with the things of God. They had lived
dissolute lives. And – here is a significant point – it says that
Eli “did not restrain them.” No discipline. So Eli’s sons, God
said, would be discarded, useless.
The Lord told Samuel all of that to get this young man to
consider the consequences. To consider carefully what it is
to begin a walk on a spiritual journey and then to falter. To
consider forthrightly what it means to start a pilgrimage and
then lose faith. The Lord gave Samuel negative examples,
so that he could learn from them, and consider the
consequences if he should go that route.
The sorriest people I know are those who are so cocksure of
themselves that they absolutely defy you to change them.
The saddest folks I know are those who, having learned a
little bit, have decided that that is enough, and they will not
be changed. Their theme song is, “We shall, we shall not be
moved.” Somebody said to me once, “Pastor, I don’t care
what you teach from that pulpit, I am going to believe what I
already believe anyway.” How’s that for motivation to
preach? Some folks just absolutely dare you to give them a
new idea or an original thought!
But consider the consequences! Consider the
consequences if you decide that your life has been shaped
all it is going to be shaped. Consider God’s warning that
Eli’s sons had gone on their own paths and that Eli did
nothing to restrain them or shape them. Destructive, deadly,
and damaging for everybody.
If you are truly available for life-shaping, you will consider the
consequences of stopping too soon and not following
through with what you have begun with the Lord.
IV
But, finally, if you want to be available for life-shaping, accept
affirmation. Consider the consequences of negative
behavior, yes, but accept affirmation. Take it in and let it
encourage you when someone loves you enough to lift you
up.
Some of us have just as much trouble accepting affirmation
as others do in dealing with disappointment or considering
the consequences of misbehavior. Some of us are so
insecure that we can’t handle it when somebody encourages
us. Someone will say, “You really did a good job with that”,
and what do we say? Aw, it was nothing. I really should
have done better. We don’t know what to do with
affirmation. My grandmother, whenever we would eat a meal
at her home, we would tell her how good it was. But she
would say, “Well, it’s not as good as the last one I did.” She
said that every single time, and so we would all say we wish
we had eaten Grandma’s first meal, because they’ve all
been downhill since then! Some of us just cannot accept
affirmation. But the capstone of being available for life-
shaping is to take the encouragement others give us and
build it into our spiritual strength.
When Samuel finished His talk with the Lord, Eli asked that
he speak about what was on his mind. But Samuel, like so
many of us, “was afraid to tell the vision”. But thank God, Eli
persisted, Eli dug it out of him, and then Eli said, “Samuel, it
is the Lord.” Samuel, what you are hearing and doing is of
the Lord. It is right, it is for you. Get on with it. Get on with
the Lord’s business. Accept my affirmation, polish your life
with it. You are available for life-shaping. Accept affirmation.
Brothers and sisters, we need to grow. Not matter what our
age, we need to grow. I may be a senior citizen (and I know
somebody mighty close to me who achieved that status just
yesterday). But if I know my own heart, I want to learn more
and be more and do more. I want to be available for life-
shaping. I guess it’s selfish, but I want to be like Samuel,
who, it says here, grew up. And when he did, he became
worthwhile: the Lord let none of his words fall to the ground.
I want to be trustworthy, like Samuel: all Israel knew that
Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord; and I want to
be respected, as Samuel was: the word of Samuel came to
all Israel.
The only way to be worthwhile, trustworthy, and respected, is
to be available for life-shaping. The way to be available for
life-shaping is to downplay disappointments, pick perceptive
persons to advise me, consider the consequences if I shut
down, and accept affirmation from those who choose to give
it. Then will my angel be freed from this rough exterior.
