Avoidance Is a Way of Hiding | 1 Samuel 10

and that I know and I go down a different aisle because I don't wanna talk to them. - Right, yeah. - Because it's always the person who you don't want to talk to. - Yes, the high school friend. - Yes, or who? - There's somebody that's draining it. - A really big person who you know will like talk your ear off and-- - Emotional vampires. - So that's convicting for me as well. Yeah, like that is quite literally me hiding in the produce aisle from someone who God could be placing that interaction right in front of me. Because maybe that person needs someone to talk to. - So real. - I don't want it to be me. - Yeah. - This is the Crossroads Daily. No experts, no perfect people, just honest conversations about what happens when the Bible shows up in real life. (upbeat music) - Welcome to Crossroads Daily, my name's Caleb. - Hi, Alex. - I'm Niko. - I'm Kirsten. - And we are in first Samuel chapter 10 today. It's really like chapter nine runs right in the chapter 10. They're just back to back.

- Yeah, that's how numbers work. - That's how numbers work, yes. What I mean is that the end of chapter nine is not really the end, it just keeps going. Yes, thank you Kirsten. That is our numbers work. (laughing) That's funny. And at the end of this chapter, we actually get where Samuel the prophet wants to anoint Saul as the first king of Israel. But he can't find him. And the people are like, wait, where's the guy? And God says, he's hiding, it's like funny. It's like humor. God's like, he's hiding over there among the supplies, like. - No, not. (laughing) - So, which is interesting to me because all Samuel talks about is how tall Saul is. - Yeah. - It sounds like over and over. He's hitting shoulders taller than everyone else. Like the tall guy is hiding over there. I don't know, it's funny. (laughing) So, my first question for you guys, can you think of a time where you felt like God was calling you to something? And your first response was, I'ma go hide over here. - I have two examples.

What is, this is so unrelated. This is so unbranded for me. But when I was in middle school, I joined the track team, but I didn't like to run. So, I would hide in the bathroom. So, all everyone else was running around. (laughing) And I was-- - Why did you join the track team? 'Cause you don't like the room. - When everyone was like finishing their laps, I would come out with, oh. - Oh, so hard. - Give me some water. That was like, I was like, oh, what? - L-O-L-Z, that's ridiculous. - No, but actually, how, the reason I thought of that was because I actually right now, in this moment, am convicted, because I will be out at like social gatherings. And I'm a very like, I'm an introverted extrovert. So like, I can turn the extrovert on, but I have to like refuel in my introvert alone. Like I don't wanna be around anyone, whenever I'm at home. And so, I've been in a lot of really cool circles where I think God wants to use me to just talk about him, to love on the people that I'm with. And I have just not been filling my cup up enough with quiet times or prayer. And so, I'm so empty that I literally have been lately

hiding in the bathroom to like avoid social gatherings. Okay, if I just stay here for 10 minutes, I won't have to talk to anyone when I get out. And I'm just sitting here like, what are we doing? 'Cause I have been doing it more and more lately. And I don't want to. I feel like he wants to use me in the rooms that I'm in. And so anyways, very fresh example for me. Yeah, right. That reminds me of when I see people at the grocery store that I know and I go down a different aisle because I don't wanna talk to them. - Right, yeah, right, yeah. - Because it's always the person who you don't want to talk to you. - Yes, the high school friend. - Yes, or who ever. - Who ever? A really unique person who you know will like talk your ear off. - Emissional vampires. - So that's convicting for me as well. Yeah, like that is quite literally me hiding in the produce aisle from someone who God could be placing that interaction right in front of me. Because maybe that person needs someone to talk to. - I don't want it to be me. - It's funny because I can relate to that and it doesn't even have to be somebody that's emotionally draining. It can be like, I can genuinely like that person.

I think it's more of a me thing. And you touch on the key thing when you like, when you said, when I'm not filling my cup, but it's pretty much just my version of that. I know that with me, I recognize that God allows me to just be in community with like some incredible men, like men that I respect, men that I admire. And I love that. And I love connecting people. I'm a natural connector. I can talk to you. And I'm like, oh, I know someone you should meet. And I love bringing people together and connecting people and creating spaces for that. And then I'd get joy out of that. And then when after I do that, I'm in that space, I often get attacked with like, now everybody's here. You're the one that doesn't belong though, right? Like your job is done, you're great, you've pulled everyone together, you can leave. You don't share the same, you know, common ground that the majority of this room shares, your story is completely different than everybody else in this room. And I will be bombarded with those thoughts, which oftentimes leads me to just retreat from certain spaces 'cause I'm like, I don't have the energy to deal with that today. I can't fight those attacks today, but yeah, yeah. - You're right though, it's not,

it's not the emotionally draining person's fault. It's me. I'm the problem. - It's me. - You can think about this. - Think about this 'cause I'm gonna ask you after I tell a story, but we see all throughout the Bible, even from the first pages, Adam and Eve, when they recognize that they've sinned, they go and hide. We find people hiding from God all the time. I want you to think about how do you hide? What is the way that you hide? I'm just hearing you guys talk, I recognize that I hide through speed. They're doing things fast, right? - Oh, gosh. - Like I'm at work and I'm working hard and I gotta get home, right? So if I gotta stop a croaker, I gotta stop with the grocery and get some stuff, I gotta go fast. I mean, I'm like running people over in the aisles. They hate to see me coming. And God has put things in front of me that I could not ignore. Like over the past month, I was just talking to my wife about this. I was like, why do these weird things keep happening to me? A kid had a wreck in a car by himself right in front of me.

Like he just lost control and hit a wall. I had to like, I guess I could have kept going, but I felt like God was like, you gotta stop and help this kid. So I stopped, right? I was at the grocery last week and I'm doing my thing, I'm going fast and I get, I'm walking out the door and there's a guy with a walker. I mean, he's just inching, man. He's going so slow and he got, he got a hung up on the door. And I was like, ugh, let me stop. Let me slow down, help them get out the door. Long story short. He was with his wife, they needed help. His wife handed me her car keys and she was like, can you go find my car for me? And I was like, sure? And anyway, helped him get loaded up. God's slowing me down so that I can't hide from the opportunities he's given me, just by my natural tendency to speed through. You know what I'm saying? Slowing down helps me see what God is doing. That's, I see that speed is the way I hide. So I love to hear from you guys. What are ways that you try to hide or that you find yourself hiding from things God might call you to be doing?

- Yeah. Well, clearly avoidance is one of mine. I just, I see the thing, I'm like, don't wanna deal with that, goodbye. And go hide in the produce aisle or whatever it is. I think about a time, a few years ago, I had a friend pass away and at her funeral, I did, quite literally just did not want to deal with my emotions around her death. And so I volunteered to do a bunch of things for her celebration of life and never even entered the room where the service was happening. I volunteered to get the food and set up the food for the reception afterwards and then I handed out programs and all these things. And I dealt with that later because I was avoiding it. I was hiding from my own personal emotions around it. And I know that I do that. I have a tendency to do that. - Yeah, wow, wow. - Did home. - I think for me, I would say it's like a two-prong approach. One, I try to find someone else, maybe to do the thing. Who's more qualified? Okay, you're presented to me, but I get it. I'm just the whatever, like I'm right here. Let me find somebody, you know? So I'll go through the mindset of trying to find who's more qualified for it.

And then I'll just try to lean into my strengths. Which seems like, I guess, you know, a great leadership approach in certain cases, but I know the core at the core of my why is because I'm hiding. It's not, okay, we'll put the best player in a game. And then, you know, to make this a collective thing. I know, in some cases, that makes sense. But I know in certain cases, I do that to hide from God calling me to the thing. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, spoiler alert, God don't work like that. - He's never putting the most qualified, the best leader in charge. Or else it goes poorly, so. - Yeah, I mean, that's what we see in Saul's story. - Yeah. that's who God most often calls. So, whatever God is calling you to do today, don't hide from it. Don't speed past it, don't avoid it, don't try to find the person that's better at it than you are. No, if he's actually calling you to do it, the step of obedience is to actually do it. It's not that complicated. Go do that thing. If you don't know what that thing is, someone who has told me, do the last thing he told you to do. Whatever God's calling you to do, try that today.

We'll see you next time. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)