“‘Arise, anoint him, for this is he.’ Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward” (1 Samuel 16:12,13).
A couple words to note here.
For one, this anointing wasn’t merely a swipe on the forehead with Samuel’s finger. The Hebrew word used is mâshach and while its root is “to rub (or smear) with oil,” it can also be used to mean “to paint”--as in, God’s going to paint a few rooms in his house (see Jeremiah 22:14). With this in mind, it’d be helpful for all of us to recall that God is the Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifyer, and … the Master Smear-er of Paint.
The other word is tsâlach: “the Spirit of the Lord came mightily (tsâlach) upon David …” which implies that God forcefully caused David to thrive and to be successful. David had very little to do with his prosperity, God made it happen. This reality reminds me of St. Augustine’s sobering words:
“God may have created you without your consent, but he will not save you without your consent.”
“All is grace” - St. Teresa of Avila
We need to let go of the idea that our prosperity is tied to our ability. When we look back at our success (financial, social, spiritual, intellectual, emotional … all of it), we need to admit the reality that we had very little to do with it.
It takes a massive amount of courage--peppered with equal-parts humility--to gratefully admit that “every good and perfect gift” is from our Father in Heaven, the Master Smear-er of Anointing Oils (James 1:17). He has anointed you. Therefore he alone has enabled you to prosper.
I feel like now’s a good time to remind myself: “it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, Champ!” There will be times in our lives that “to prosper” requires a purification. Prosperity is a journey.
Think of gold and the journey it goes through to become pure. Gold only prospers after it has been thoroughly cleansed of imperfections. Prior to that, people can still utilize it but its value and true worth will only ever be recognized in part … as long as it remains “impure.”
Being purified by the Refiner’s Fire is intrinsic to true prosperity.
Think of King David’s journey. Prior to being anointed by the Prophet Samuel he was the handsome but overlooked one among his family. After his anointing he saw success in battle, public speaking, social settings, he was musically-inclined and as his king’s armour-bearer he was greatly loved (see 1 Samuel 16:11-23). David, the scriptures tell us, “had success in all his undertakings; for the Lord was with him” (1 Samuel 18:14).
Putting it mildly, King David wasn’t without his struggles. His was absolutely a journey to prosperity through God’s Crucible of Love. We know he was a willing participant in the fire because of the Psalms. His joys, his sorrow, his longing … all of it is found in the Psalms. We witness his journey through Love’s Crucible just as we witness a lesson at school. No matter where this Crucible takes us, no matter how difficult and bleak it may seem, as we cooperate with our Father’s grace we will emerge like David and proclaim:
“Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name!” (Psalm 103:1)
In my Testify ‘stack I shared with you my conversion, the moment when Love reached into my darkness to set me free with his immeasurable light. Four months later I completed an Ignatian silent retreat at the same retreat centre, Ephphatha House. I was looking for direction and the retreat master (Fr. Ted Rozmahel1) sensed that God was calling me to Evangelize. Almost immediately after I returned from the retreat, the opportunities to evangelize piled on.
I loved (and still do) being a missionary, proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus and serving people in need is a massive part of who I am and what I thoroughly enjoy doing. It’s not easy and I’m not particularly good at it, but I love it.
Very early on I seemed to prosper as a missionary but there was a period of time in which God pulled that anointing back a bit in order to give me room to enter his crucible a little deeper than I had before.2
Dive into the Crucible
This period in my life gave me room to pause and surrender my passion for missionary work into Love’s Crucible.
This took a long time, many years of internal struggle. In fact, I still struggle with it! Slowly I began to realize that I had to be attached to nothing other than the Heart of Jesus. Prosperity is a journey.
All of my attachments, including my love of missionary work, keep me from recklessly plunging into Love’s Crucible. They’re like a cord attached to the edge of the crucible and as long I’m holding on to this cord, I will only be able to be purified so much and never take the plunge that my heart longs for.
Prosperity is a journey deep into the recesses of Love’s Crucible.
Learning this type of radical detachment from what I loved doing reminds me of St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s willingness to be a “cheap little ball which Jesus could … leave neglected in a corner.”
My dear friends, Thérèse’s lesson in detachment is for all of us. Are we willing to offer ourselves to the little Jesus and let go of any sense of entitlement or “giftedness”?
You and I are not entitled to be Missionaries. There is no special anointing that’s owed to us, nothing that we’ve earned through our innate talents or perceived success. Being a missionary demands that we dive head first into Love’s Refining Fire, just like St. Thérèse did. She is, after all, a missionary’s Patron Saint.
“Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name!” (Psalm 103:1)
It was significant for me that Fr. Ted Rozmahel was the retreat master (God knew exactly what he was doing). When I was a teen, I attended Our Lady of Victory Camp (OLVC) in Alberta. He was the camp Chaplain at OLVC and a father figure to me. While I was a camper, I loved to be near him and thoroghly enjoyed hearing what he had to say. His disposition and presence spoke so much to me about God’s Fatherly love. Fr. Ted passed away in 2011, may God give rest to his soul.
King David went through something similar when his son usurped the throne (see 2 Samuel 15-19).