Dedicated to God

Today we start the saga of the Prophet Samuel, with the story of his mother, Hannah. Eugene Peterson (The Message/Remix) says in his introduction to 1Samuel, that the stories in the Bible are "immersions into the actual business of living itself; this is what it means to be human." And there is no story more human than the story of Hannah longing for a child.
1Samuel 1:26 I prayed for this child and God gave me what I asked for. And now I have dedicated him to God. He's dedicated to God for life. 1Samuel starts with the story of Hannah, taunted for her childlessness, who prays for a child and is answered. In gratitude and thanksgiving, she offers him to be dedicated to God, serving Eli the old priest in God's Temple. Oh, but that must have been hard! Here she has her beloved child, her beautiful son, that she has longed for so fiercely, and she has to leave him at the temple. As the story unfolds, it must have been so clear to her how right that was, and she must have been proud -- and God comforts her with other children to love and care for, but how hard it must have been to walk away that first time, leaving her beloved boy behind. Hannah does this incredibly hard thing -- and it turns out to be amazing! -- but she doesn't know that here. So what difficult tasks does God call me to do? Do I embrace them and follow through regardless of the difficulty because I know God is calling me and for not other reason, or do I shy away, pretend I don't hear, postpone and procrastinate hoping I won't actually have to do it? There are lots of stories like that in the bible, too, often followed by consequences much worse than they might have been. So I wonder, do I have Hannah's courage and faithfulness to do the hard things that God calls me to do? Prayer: Dear God, I know that I am weak and cowardly and it is only through you and in you that I find my strength. Give me the clarity to recognize, the courage to confront and the faithfulness to follow through on the difficult choices you call me to that I might be led not to see you in my story, as Peterson says, but to find my story in you. Amen