^“Then Jesse told his son Abinadab to step forward and walk in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “This is not the one the Lord has chosen.”

In work, we get passed over all the time.  Sometimes it is because we don’t get the job we expected.  Other times someone else just gets promoted over us.  And then sometimes, it’s just because someone doesn’t see us in a bigger job and we get left behind.  And it is not only the people who are in the jobs that get passed over who are affected, but all of the people who are on that person’s coattails also feel left out and then don’t think they will ever get ahead because they lost their champion or supporter. It’s not an inconsequential event when someone gets passed over as there are many ramifications and it takes real maturity to look past the current moment and instead to think in a longer time frame and in the bigger picture.  So, we have to zoom out and try the best we can to see what needs to be managed when we make the selection choices and certainly when we know that someone is being passed over or losing out.

God chose to make the change with Saul and make David King.  This was not what Saul was expecting and as you can imagine, all the emotions kicked into high gear and there was a lot of fear and denials.  But, God was more than sure that Saul could not move forward as the King.  So, it became a real problem that Saul wanted to make it as difficult on Samuel and David as possible.  There are many things we can learn from this account, but one that we can carry forward with us through each and every day is that when things don’t go our way we get to choose to respond in one way or another.  We can see in God’s Word that had Saul listened to God in the first place and had he followed what God had to tell him that Saul could have been a faithful follower, but he wasn’t and this isn’t the way any of us would want to respond to what God is telling us to do.  And, also the same learning for how we respond when things don’t go our way.

Reference: 1 Samuel 16:8 (New Living Translation)