You Don't Have to Make it Right | 1 Samuel 26

Every one of them. He never... - Every one of them. - This never ended well for him. - And this, you know what I mean, this made sense. - That's right. And yeah, his willingness to continue to invite them... - Man. - ...into his life. This is the Crossroads Daily. No experts, no perfect people. Just on his conversations about what happens when the Bible shows up in real life. - Hey, I'm Arturo. - And I'm Chuck. - I'm Deebo. - I'm Josh. And we're looking at first Samuel this week in the story of David's continual running from Saul who's trying to kill him. And yet, there's an opportunity, again, for David to get his big payback. You know, there's not always a soundtrack going through my head when I read the Bible. - Chuck knows where I'm going to say, over this one it is. - Yes, yes. - And it's by James Brown. - It's by James Brown. - Big payback. I love that song. - It's so good. - It's so good. - Ooh. - The chicken chicken. - I just hear James Brown all through this. - I love that. - Big payback. - That's right. - Best line. I don't know Karate, but I know Karazin. - That's a great line. - That's a great line. - Let that one simmer for you. - But David has a chance for a big payback. - Yeah. - And he doesn't take it. He doesn't take it. I wonder if our stories are the same or... Have you had a chance to get even with somebody and chose not to do it? And if so, what made you not do that? - I really struggle with this. - Okay. - I think I love fairness. I love justice.

I want things to feel fair. - Yeah. - Even as you're asking that question, I'm like, "Why is this hard for me?" Because even in... I think about my marriage. If I feel hurt, I want my husband to feel the weight. I want things to feel fair. I want you to understand what I'm going through. Or even in any relationships that I have, I'm like, "It's hard for me not to want things to feel even. I struggle in this." - Yeah. And I think the operative word is you want to make it even. - I want to make it even. - Yeah. - Like with my own strength. - Yes. - Yeah. - Yes. - I would say I just... I'm similar, but I want someone to make it even. So it's similar, but different. I just want, whether it be me, or someone seeing the injustice and having the power and the authority to say, "No." - And they make it right. - And that usually leads me to frustration with God or the person that's supposed to be my advocate and doesn't enact on the fairness or the justice. And I'm going, "Why?" - Yeah. - And similar to Abigail, it's the reminder of who I am. - Yeah. - And that's frustrating. It's not like, "Oh, yeah, thanks. Thanks for the reminder." There's still some frustration here because I'm like, "I don't... I don't want to be me." - That's right. - I don't want to be me, I don't want to be me, but I'm not going to say it still doesn't come with some frustration, but it is people having to remind me. - That's right. That's right. Well, I appreciate you saying that too. Like, we don't have to litigate our frustration. We don't have to litigate our feelings. Like, it's okay to feel less than excited about the thing that God may cause to do. You know, we're not always going to be like, "Oh, yeah, that's so great about it." - Yeah. - But it's interesting.

You said, "But even though you don't want to be me, there's something that constrains you." And it is that... I'm assuming that's not the only way you are. - 100%. - Yeah. That's really good. - That's really good. - Well, I think I hide behind fairness and justice with my need for vengeance. I think I use... I have, and there are parts of me that still do, but this idea of justice and fairness, when really what has happened is, I have, my self has been offended. My masculinity, my whatever, my ego, those things are offended, and I use this idea of justice and fairness. - Yeah, that's good. - And so, I want revenge for that. And the anecdote, the antidote for me, antidote, anecdote, different things, the antidote for that is me is a low place, taking a low place. - Yeah, like that is the battle for me. That is the constant battle, take a low place. - Right. I can relate. I can relate. I'll give you a very specific example, kind of a real-time example. Like, there's a particular person that we had falling out, and I know, because I keep getting evidence of it, that they are saying things about me that are not true consistently. - It's tired. And in those situations, it's not even when the person, I've had people come up to me and say, "I heard this about you." It's not even that. It's that sometimes people will come up to me and say, "Hey, do you know this person?" And there's this, thankfully, that voice has not won, but there's the voice that says, "I do," and let me tell you about that, right? And it's like, "You know what? Yeah, I do." I speak to the things that I, it's not easy. It's not easy, it hasn't been easy for me. It's been really hurtful. And at the same time, I just know that like God, there's a sense in which God is saying, just, I've got you. You don't have to, you don't have to make this right, you don't have to balance the scales on your own. Like, it's okay, it's the low place things. I really resonate with that 'cause that's, it's hard. It's hard and there are times when I feel sad and hurt

and angry and all those things. And yet I know this exactly where God is wanting me to be. - I think that we see David in this place of truly understanding the belief that God is his defender. Like God is his protector. And I think when we have that, we don't have that belief in our mind. We end up wanting to do things like in our own eyes. That's like when I think back all the time. So I'm trying to like, get things even or I'm trying to do things in my own way. It's because I don't believe that. - Yeah. Oh, Devo. - Yeah. - That like, and like both what you both, you said, like God's got you and it's just not enough for me sometimes. Like that's the real, real. Like sometimes it is a not enough. And that's where it's like pulling from some reserve in me, remembering God's faithfulness. You know what I mean? - That's right. - That's not enough for me sometimes to know that the Lord's got me and he's gonna make things right. When all I wanna do is like just smash someone. - I'll tell you what, I have the audacity to take it even a step further. - Go. - For it to be resolved in a way where I'm like, fine.

Right? I go through the frustration. Something else happens again. I'm like, I have the audacity to think you're gonna pull up for this one too. You're gonna show up and show up for this one too. Even though I have three decades worth of evidence, I still have the audacity in those moments to think for this one too, really? Take the low place for this one too and you got me. - Right. - It's hard. Just being real. - It is hard. - No, absolutely. - It would have the audacity to do that, but it's real, I'm not justifying it. But I have a feeling it's just gonna happen at least a couple more times right? - At least I got left on this earth, right? - Yeah. - So what do we learn in this chapter that can be helpful for us from David? 'Cause he doesn't, yet again, he doesn't take revenge and I do have to say this. I think it's really interesting. First time this happened, David cut off a little piece of cloth from Saul, the king that was trying to kill him so that he could say, hey, I could have

and I didn't. This time he takes a spear and his water jug. So he's still like, there's a little bit of, I don't know what to call that, passive aggressive or whatever just to make it clear. But what I find interesting is, and I don't understand this, but like at the end of this chapter, Saul affirms David. He still sees something in David's character that's like, wow, wow. And I think sometimes it's not even that we get the justice. Sometimes it's just that we get the bare witness to the character of Jesus. And that could be like, we might get the injustice. I mean, shoot, there's a lot, you know, I think about my story and just growing up in the family that I came from and my dad growing up in Jim Crow, St. Louis. Like my dad didn't get the justice all the time. But man, I think about people in that moment that were able to reflect the heart of Jesus in the face of the injustice. Sometimes that's, God might cause to that, right? 'Cause he causes the suffering. We don't always get the the just outcome, at least in our lifetime or in our moment or in the way that we want it. - Yeah, I think about the men that were around David at that time.

Probably just like, yeah, go ahead, go ahead. And his decision not to how that affected their faith. And like what you're saying, I think that God's plan is so much bigger than what we could ever think. And his desire for his character to be shown is his ultimate plan. - That's right. - More than our desire for justice. Like you know, and so I think that's so powerful. - Yeah, I don't know where this fits in our discussion, but it strikes me so David took his spear and his water jug. David took his spear saying, I can take your power. And he took his water jug and said, I could take your life. - Wow. - I could do both of those things. And I don't know what God thought of that. - Yeah, right, right. Yeah, there's not a value just based on that. But I got to wonder like, I don't think God would have been pleased with it. - Yeah. Yeah. - Now you got to think, my understanding is David was a warrior. - Yeah. - David was a fighter. I would not have any semblance, even if I saw that I could, that I would take it. I don't even know that I would tell them that I could have, but I didn't. It just makes me, it gives me pause, not knowing what God thought about it.

It makes, it makes it, just looking back on situations where whether or not I took the vengeance I deserved, there are times I did do something. Yeah. Yeah. I did do a little something. Yeah. You know, a little jab here, a little, not so much trusting you anymore, maybe even fully writing you out of my life. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And what does God think about that? And then I have to look to the person of Jesus. That's right. And I go, I don't think he would have liked it. No. No. I don't think he would have liked it. No. It's not taking the low place. No, it's not. Good. It's not. Well, I'm speaking to that, you know, I'm doing a message on friendship in the coming weeks and I'm thinking about like, man, Jesus was betrayed by all his friends. Every one of them. He never, this, this never ended well for him in this, you know what I mean, in that sense. That's right. And yet his willingness to continue to invite them man into his life, and I'm not, there's

some, look boundaries are real. There's some people. Yes. They harm you and you should be distant from them. David didn't say, Hey, Saul, here I am. No weapons. I'm just going to hang out with you all day. You can do that. So I want to just be clear. Like boundaries are real. And yet there is this place of grace. And there is this place of grace doesn't make sense. Right. It doesn't make sense how Jesus forgives us. We portray him. It doesn't make sense how he invites us into his confidence, his friends. When we are the ones that are trying to, you know, diminish his name, but he does. And I just hope today that I don't know, maybe that's the takeaway for all of us is like, could there be a friend? Could there be someone who is that gracious and that forgiving and that welcoming, no matter what. And the beautiful answer is yes, there is. And it's the friend Jesus. It's the friend that we can never be. But he's the one that wants to be that kind of friend to us. So man, just take that in. I'm just blessed by that today. I hope you're blessed by that too. [MUSIC]