Taking one for the Team

This morning God speaks to me again about the power of having someone in your life that believes in you. We have all experienced the human capacity to let others down, as well as being let down, but the privileged few know the gift of being truly known and loved by another. Saul's jealousy toward David has so consumed him that he now seeks David's life. He tries to get his son Jonathon to join in the manhunt for David. Jonathon convinces his father that David has done nothing to wrong him, and Saul makes an oath that he will not harm David. But, after another battle with the Philistines in which David is hugely successful, Saul's envy rages again and he seeks to kill David. Michal, David's wife and Saul's daughter, helps him escape but when Saul finds out and questions her she shifts her loyalty away from David because fear for her own safety outweighs her love for David. How often am I in the position of choosing to be a Jonathon or a Michal? Will I stand for someone else - putting their passions and dreams above my own - when it endangers my own spirit's desires? Truly, God asks us daily to choose a selfless life of love in which others are first - a loyalty that goes beyond our own comfort many times. Today as I run I pray for eyes to see into the spirit of others and the strength to put their dreams first.