Fly Right!

My rough year was when I was in the 8th grade.  I don't know what got into me, but my attention getting schemes got the best of me.  I guess I had been ramping up for several years but I crested in the 8th grade.  Now I never got in real trouble.  I had to go to the principal's office only once that year, however, that visit was for singing 'America the Beautiful' with a Glen Campbell record during Chorus.  We had a substitute teacher that day that just got out the music book and an accompanying record and was trying to fill up the time.  When I joined in with the record, the teacher had enough.  I was probably warned a couple of times, but bellow it out I did.  Two or three 'licks' later,  I was a tad quieter the rest of the day.  I did not go to the office for my antics in Science with that half loony dude for a teacher.  I did not go for the grief I caused the year-long substitute in math (we put the real one out of commission for a time).  I was not mean.  I was still a good kid, just a pain.  I did not do well in school that year (to say the least).  I was more concerned about what I wanted to do than what I should have been doing.  I just stayed right below the radar from really being in trouble and repeating the 8th grade. When I went to high school, they must have convinced me that they were not going to tolerate it. I did alright and never had such 'brushes with the law'.
When I read of Samson's continued, juvenile, careless acts, I think about the consequences of living all your life like I did in the 8th grade.   It is sad to never reach your full potential in the Lord.  The clue for what went wrong with Samson is stated early.  Judges 14:3-   But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.” (www.lifejournal.cc)  When your effort in life is to get what you want and to be lead by what looks right in your eyes, you are sure to fail.  When you try to live life recklessly, right below the radar, you will soon crash and burn.   He thought eating out of a dead carcass when no one was looking would be fine.  He thought getting caught up with wrong women would not hurt.  He thought that the wisdom God gave Him was best used in silly riddles.  Samson acted like I did in the 8th grade throughout a lot of his adult life....and he never accomplished what he could have in the Lord.
Don't miss your greatest potential by settling for the status quo, just trying to stay below the radar spiritually, or by being led by what you want and what you see.  Aim Higher! Fly right!