As we will learn from today’s lessons, perhaps the greatest qualification for upward mobility in God’s kingdom is humility. Samuel Morse, the inventor of the telegraph understood that precept well. He received all sorts of honors and monetary rewards from the invention of the telegraph, but he never forgot the source of his success. He once said, “I have made a valuable application of electricity, not because I was superior to other men, but solely because God, who meant it for mankind, must reveal it to someone, and He was pleased to reveal it to me!” (Tim Hansel, Eating Problems for Breakfast, 33-34).
Like Morse, David understood that the main secret of upward mobility in God’s kingdom is humility. Saul didn’t. Therefore, our story in 1 Samuel is about one humble man who’s moving up, while a proud man is spiraling downward. May we all learn from David to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord so that He can lift us up!
George