Failing to Live Up to One's Potential

I have been reading the story of Samson this week for my morning devotions and have been struck how this man had, at least initially, the greatest potential of all of the judges of Israel. No other judge had such promises made of him from before his birth. No other judge was set apart like Samson. His parents responded in godly trust to the announcement of his birth. Yet, all of the recorded events of his life reveal a man who utterly failed to live up to his potential.

Samson's call was to begin the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines (Judges 13:5). Yet, every incident that we find recorded in Scripture involving the Philistines and Samson is one where Samson acts out of self-interest. When he fights the Philistines, it is in order to pursue his own desires and goals or to take personal vengeance upon them. God gives him the opportunities but Samson squanders them in his pursuit of sweets, suits and skirts.

Samson exemplifies the leader who takes the gifts that God gives him and becomes preoccupied with how these gifts can personally benefit him in the here-and-now. Such individuals never seem to realize that you really cannot have the best of both worlds; God does not share his glory with another.