“But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’” — 1 Samuel 16:7
Every basketball fan knows the name Bill Russell, the Hall of Famer who helped the Boston Celtics win 11 NBA titles in 13 years. And some basketball aficionados will remember that Russell helped the University of San Francisco to back-to-back NCAA Championships in 1955 and 1956.
However, most likely don’t realize that people thought Russell couldn’t shoot well. They thought he was just a 6-foot-9 blocking and rebounding machine (who, by the way, was so good at rebounding that the foul lanes were widened to 12 feet from six feet during his playing days).
Ultimately, what people thought of Russell didn’t matter. What mattered was what Russell did. He wasn’t limited by people, only by himself. If he chose to live up to the standards people placed on him, he would have only blocked shots and rebounded. But his passion was to help his team and do his best, not live up to (or down to, in this case) the opinions of others.
Those opinions were similar to the ones people had of David, who wasn’t considered worthy to be king — so much so that he was still out in the field tending sheep when Samuel asked to see Jesse’s children so that he could anoint God’s choice as king.
Are you living the life God designed you to live, or are you living up to (or down to) what others think or see you as being?
— Brett Honeycutt
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