The Instinct of Adventure: The Story of SamsonSample

Hair Grows Back

The consequences of Samson’s betrayal were devastating. The Philistines took him as a prize for their entertainment. They shaved his head, gouged out his eyes, and chained him to a mill in the temple of their god, Dagon. The irony is hard to miss. Each of their punishments fit the way Samson lived.

His hair being shaved robbed him of his strength. His gouged eyes robbed him of that sense that first drew him to Philistia. He had lived by what seemed right in his own eyes, and now lost his sight for it. He was also robbed of his freedom to move, to go, to travel down to those Philistine cities. He found himself chained now in place.

Most profoundly, he had lost the Spirit’s presence. God was no longer with him. Instead, he became a tool of Philistine propaganda, an object of worship to their gods. It all seems to end in his defeat. Samson had finally come to rest, and it was in his own humiliation.

But that isn’t how the story ends. There is a simple but profound line that emerges from his Philistine captivity. We read simply, “But the hair of his head began to grow again.” Chained and blinded, Samson’s hair began to grow back. It is symbolic and poetic. Who Samson really was could not be lost. God was at work in Samson, as he had always been.

I’m not sure Samson even realized his hair was growing back. For something so personal as our own hair, we have little control over it. Chained to the wall, Samson may not even have been able to reach up and feel it. But God was at work. Samson’s story was not over.

In the end, Samson defeated the Philistine who held him captive. With one last bit of Spirit-empowered strength, he pulled down the temple and reclaimed the message of Israel’s God. He would be remembered for all of his failures, but also for that final statement of faith and belief.

Your identity, your purpose, that sense of meaningful adventure, is not something you can produce on your own, no more than you can grow more hair on your head. It is yours, but you are dependent on something you do not fully possess or control. Samson reminds us of our need for discernment and for our submission to the story God is leading.

God is doing something in your life. He has plans and purposes which he is calling you to embrace and recognize. It will not always feel adventurous. It will not be all that you could imagine or would determine for yourself. But he will not betray you. He will not abandon you nor mock you.

God is the adventure you have been looking for. He is that thing on the horizon for which you are searching. He is the one who writes the better story. And our calling, our highest pursuit, is to receive the work he is leading us into.

I wonder what kind of story you are already a part of? It will take faith and discernment for you to recognize it.

How is your identity formed first by receiving from God?