I am forced to admit that I made the chains binding me to the merry-go-round. They are of my own manufacture. But they no longer need to bind me.

It is a bit surprising that when Samuel went to the house of Jesse to anoint one of Jesse’s sons as king, David was the last one that either Jesse or Samuel thought had the raw material for kingship.

The lesson we should learn from this is that we can have all the right answers but still be wrong. We can say all the right things and still be far away from where we need to be.

But if we are truly church leaders, we must diligently seek God as to how to be intentional about producing disciples that are producing disciples. It won’t happen by accident.

As I have grown older, I have become increasingly comfortable with allowing God to be mysterious. This has relieved me of some of the pressure to provide explanations for particular events.

The problematic words in these translations are “always” and “continually.” I find that I have lapses when I allow my pride to take over and I think (and too often say) stupid stuff.

If we are to accomplish all that God has for us, we need to remember that it is a team effort and we stand or fall based on how well we nurture every member.