When you look at yourself, do you play God?
In the typical “Hero’s Journey,” the hero starts out at best ordinary but most likely flawed, and yet is the right and only person who can rise to the occasion.
In “Rising Son,” Da Wei, the protagonist of my story, is a slave among slaves who cannot believe that the tyrannical Xi Cai and his power-hungry son Kyung can be overthrown.
He, as do most people, look at themselves through the eyes of a man. And, in reality, people experience the result of being viewed by what mortal men see.
But David, as one whose heart belonged to God, experienced God’s discernment.
Samuel, in speaking with God, sought to understand who would be annointed the next King.
Ordered to bring the sons of Jesse, he complied, and immediately expected the oldest son Eliab to be the anointed one:
“When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed stands here before the LORD.”
But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7-7
I find myself falling into that trap, applying the same optic on myself (on others) as Samuel did on Eliab and David.
It is so easy to compare our perception of our outward appearance with the outward appearances of others. I heard someone comment to me that people often compare their insides with the outsides of others, and in that scenario, we will often feel badly.
But in this story, God clearly tells Samuel and us that he looks at the heart to “anoint” the one who will rise on his behalf.
