While flying home from Thailand on a Boeing 747.  I looked out the window and pondered if the Wright brothers ever imagined a flying ship dangled in the air at 37,000 feet with 400 people watching movies, sleeping and eating. If the Wright brothers own father ridiculed the idea of man flying and even as a minister rebuked his sons.  What would their dad say about modern flight.  Thinking about this idea was quite amazing as we blast through the air at over 500 mph.  Someone had a lot of nerve to go against all conventional realities to see this mass of aluminum fly.  Today it is a part of our reality, but 50 years ago?  What has brought change today was most likely not accepted at the time of conception.  Change, new ideas, new ways are not for the insecure or inferior.  For it demands humility to accept that their are other methods and ideas that you cannot control, but have to embrace.  It takes the greatest of courage and faith to birth an alternative to the status quo, especially when you do not fully understand how it will turn out.

Samson was like this 747 to the Jews of ancient times.  No man had ever wielded the power of an army as an individual.  He went against the common measurements, accomplishments and laws of the time.  Who could train and develop him into a man as he was. . . no one.  His family, people and culture had no idea how to make him a deliverer.  The result, they rejected him. He was out of place and unconventional, yet, he demonstrated the physics of a common man infused with the Spirit of God.

Their is a common theme among Christians around the world.  A group of people that believe the unbelievable: A virgin birth of their Savior who was sinless, all man and all God, healed the sick, forgave sins, was not partial to your background, died on the cross as a perfect sacrifice, raised from the dead and is alive today.  To top it off, His Spirit that was on Samson now dwells in our heart making us one with Him.  Yet,  what is the theme of Christians? It must be unconventional, full of faith, powerful! No, around the world the common theme is not faith, boldness, courage, self sacrifice, love unfeigned, or mercy.  It is fear.  Fear of man which has breed rejection, discouragement, malice, disappointment and cowardice.

What does the story of Samson clarify:  Courage, Strength and freedom are not the same category as man’s acceptance, security and popularity.  Consider what happens to someone who allows God to have his full way in and among him.  A world that is changed.