In your unfailing love, silence my enemies; destroy all my foes, for I am your servant. – Psalm 143:12

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 18, 2013): Psalm 143

Something has to die. It is the unfortunate reality in our lives. Everywhere we look there is a choice – and something will live as a result of that choice, but something will also die. It is the common story of those who have done great things among us – people who have excelled at some part of life – the reality is that in the process of becoming great, something was left behind, and what was left behind has died. At the very least we have to begin a process of compartmentalizing life. So when I look at someone like Shaquille O’Neal, in one compartment of his life he became a great basketball player. And my guess if he is like the rest of us, a lot of other things had to die so that he could hone his skill at basketball (okay, some of us wish that he could have practiced free throws a little more – but we ask for too much.) But as the basketball compartment started to wind down, Shaquille simply opened up a new compartment and started work on his Doctor of Education. And now, with the title of Doctor in front of his name he says that he is going to go to Law School. But the reality is that for the period of time that he was becoming great in a certain area – everything else had to be put on hold.

This is not a new reality. David understood it all too well. Over and over again in life we wanted two things to be present in his life. In the beginning, David wanted to fulfill his destiny as the new king of Israel and for King Saul and his best friend Jonathan to live. But in the end he came to the realization that that was impossible. Something had to die – either his dream of his destiny as king or his friend and his friend’s father – the current king. For David to have both was impossible. Later it was his desire for God and this desire for a beautiful woman married to one of his soldiers. David wanted both God and Bathsheba, but all through the story we recognize that death is hiding in the wings. In the battle with his son Absalom, David wants more than anything to be allowed to protect both the nation and his son, but that also proved impossible. And in one of the toughest decisions of his life, David had to let go of Absalom so that the nation of Israel could continue. At each stage, something had to die.

So it is with this reality in his mind that David prays for his enemies to be destroyed. Because he knows as his life nears the end that two opposite things cannot survive. And if David was going to commit his life to the things of God, things that were against God were going to have to die.

Deep down it is a message that I know is true, but I fight against it as much as David did. I want to be a renaissance man, someone who is good at many things. The idea that two passions in my life cannot exist together is a hard one for me. But especially when I come to the realization that God has called me to a certain path, I know that every other desire has to pass away.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 144