Day 20 of 90: I'm only a paramedic

Yay!! 22% of the way there! Time flies.
And I have to confess, I just figured something out. I now know (well, I learned it a couple of weeks ago) how to post something at a time later than I wrote it. Yay me! So silly, but I love it when I figure out something technological. I was all excited when I first started figuring out HTML. Not that I really know that much, but I know just enough to keep myself happy. And when I learned how to link and have the link all pretty instead of just the web address, well, that was a day of celebration.
Anyway, I am not here right now. I am on a mini-vacay with the family and have no internet access. Cool, no? So I wrote my post ahead. Didn't get far enough ahead in my reading to post Day 21 but I hope that by the time I get home Sunday evening, I will be several days ahead.
Now, onto my post about Day 20's reading from 1 Samuel 2:30- 15:35.

I love Samuel's story. He was a wanted child. His mother prayed for a child and wanted one so much, she was willing to dedicate the child to the Lord. And then she followed through. Samuel grew up in the Lord. He spent all his time with the Lord. What a mighty man of God he was. So, it is interesting to me that his children were not such mighty men of God.

In 1 Samuel 8:3 we are told that "his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice."  And that seems so odd to me. I am trying my best to make sure that I raise my children to put God first. I want nothing less than three sons who love the Lord more than anything else in this world. And I am putting everything I have into that. I imagine that Samuel did the same. But somewhere along the line, something happened. And I am sad.
How is it possible that Samuel could raise sons who did not love the Lord? It just seems impossible.

I was reminded of an example a friend gave once, and it has always stuck with me. She talked about getting into a car accident. The police come, the paramedics come, all kinds of people rush to the scene of the accident. If someone is injured, the paramedics will do what they can temporarily, and rush to the hospital with the injured person. Then they hand the person over to the doctors at the Emergency Room. The paramedic is not the one who is there to save the injured person. It is their job to do whatever possible to keep the person alive long enough to get them to the hospital and the doctor.

A lot like me. My job isn't to save someone. I can talk til I'm blue in the face. I can give out Bibles, I can pray, I can offer support, I can take someone to the hospital. But I am not the person who will save them. That's God's job. I can't do it. But I do have to do my part. If a paramedic decides not to go to the scene of the accident, they can't help anyone, and someone might die. The same is true of me. If I keep my mouth shut and never proclaim the Gospel, people might die in sin. But if I do my job, the job God has given me, then I can point people to right place; I can point them to God. He can save them.

And that's what Samuel had to figure out, too. He wanted so badly to protect the people from themselves, but it wasn't his job. God reminded him of that. 1 Samuel 8:7 And the LORD said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.

God let Samuel know that it wasn't personal. The people were not acting the way that they did in response to something Samuel did or didn't do; they were reacting that way because they were making a point to God. It wasn't about Samuel; it was about God.
And when I see that I am not leading someone to God and I start to get down and think what difference does it make, I am lousy at this. Well, I need to remember it's not about me, it's about God. I just have to be the paramedic and do my job. I point them to Him; He saves them.