Pushed Beyond The Brink...."But It Ain't What It Looks Like"

⁹ Once after a sacrificial meal at Shiloh, Hannah got up and went to pray. Eli the priest was sitting at his customary place beside the entrance of the Tabernacle. ¹⁰ Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord. ¹¹ And she made this vow: “O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, if you will look upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you. He will be yours for his entire lifetime, and as a sign that he has been dedicated to the Lord, his hair will never be cut.”

¹² As she was praying to the Lord, Eli watched her. ¹³ Seeing her lips moving but hearing no sound, he thought she had been drinking. ¹⁴ “Must you come here drunk?” he demanded. “Throw away your wine!”   

 1^st Samuel 1:9-14 (NLT)

Growing up I had a best friend who was one of the gutsiest and intelligent persons I knew. Although he had limits to what he would and would not do, there wasn’t too much that he was afraid of nor any persons that he’d back down from. On the block he out fought the best of them, but in the classroom he was a total honor student. When he wasn’t trying to honor his persona as a tough-guy he was probably one of the nicest and most gifted kids in the neighborhood. Unfortunately not too many other folk knew that side of him.

Because he wouldn’t back down from anyone he would often be drawn into fisticuffs; and because he was pretty skillful it wasn’t uncommon for him to come out of each skirmish victorious. But he never looked for a fight, didn’t walk around with a chip on his shoulder. His attitude was simply if you keep pushing him, you would pay a price. The problem was that he wouldn’t stop pounding his opponent until he felt a lesson was learned. Many parents saw him as an arrogant bully, never realizing the true facts as to why their son was beat-up, and never recognizing my buddy’s true value or worth.

Now he had a reputation that quite frankly he never honestly lived up to…. It seems that whenever a mishap or incident occurred in our community, and there were no witnesses to the fact; fingers would automatically point in his direction. Not many took the time to find out the accurate truth or even learn of the scars he kept hidden deep within himself. No one knew of the hurt he felt from not growing up with his dad. Even I wondered some days why he would hang out in our house and hold long conversations with my dad. It seems that most everyone had an assumption about my best friend; yet none of them were true.

There is a tendency both inside and outside of Christendom to make assumptions about individuals based solely on our own perceptions; with this being so, we fail to realize that our perceptions become our reality, but our reality is not necessarily the truth.
In fact, a great majority of us will look at an individual and assess what kind of person they are based on visualization, however scripture will bear out that “what you see ain’t always what you get”…

When we read Hannah’s story we find that while her adversary attempted to push her to the brink of insanity over her baroness, it only pushed her to fervent and effectual prayer. Apparently, Eli had never witnessed prayer being made in the manner that Hannah employed so according to his perception she entered the temple in a drunken stupor. Yet in her boldness at the brink, she stood her ground; explained her purpose and the end result of her laboring in prayer produced her later giving birth to Samuel.

Just like Hannah, many people made assumptions and had perceptions about my best friend. Some had him spending his life in prison, and after he was rendered paralyzed from the waist down by a stray bullet intended for someone else the prognosticators said that he’d never walk again, would never be able to have kids, no woman would want a man with his type of handicap and because of his condition and perceived history he’d never amount to anything. Some even felt that he got what he deserved. Well, let me tell you something about my friend…..

He learned to walk with the aide of a cane; earned a degree in computer science which garnered him positions as a computer analyst for a couple of major companies. He met his wife in college and fathered five awesome children. Not only was my friend able to walk, but he could drive every new car he brought without the use of hand controls. By the way; did I mention that he earned enough wages to purchase two homes and eventually retire from working at the tender age of 45 years old? His children have all grown up to be outstanding adults.

Not only did my friend leave his naysayers in complete shock, but he loved the Lord and the Lord loved him so much that my best friend now resides in His presence.
The moral of this story is simply this: never judge a book by its cover. Although a person can be pushed to the brink of losing it all; “It Ain’t What It Looks Like”… God will step in to provide blessing and favor beyond measure, and far beyond the perceptions of others.