One of the hardest things about the Old Testament is the names.  One reason some of us avoid sermons or studies of that section of our Bible is trying to pronounce the names.  And yet we are working through 1 Samuel this summer which contains nothing but impossible titles, names and the like.  Even such a character as David doesn't escape such trouble.  He will have friends or travel places my tongue cannot conceive.  The story opens by throwing a few of those words at you from the start.  One of the characters is Peninnah.  Even this blog site is telling me that word is spelled horribly wrong.  We may refer to her as Penny from this point forward.  See, the blog site just told me that is a much better way to arrange the letters.  It didn't put a red line under that name.

Penny shared a husband with a wonderful lady named Hannah.  Probably the reason why is that Penny did bear children while Hannah did not.  Society would say that Penny was the better of the two wives.  Scripture will tell us that just ain't so.  Penny is a whiner and a complainer.  She is just flat out mean.  Hannah is described as crying profusely many times because of her competitor's taunts.  How spiritual can a person be who makes fun of another in times of suffering?  Most of us know people like that in our world.  Some work with us daily.  There are a few in families and some seem to get more than their share to avoid at reunions.  We even can go to church with people like Peninnah.  They work on committees.  They serve as leaders.  Mostly they just wear us out like a few miles of bad road. 

You never read of Hannah responding in the same attitude or action though.  Her behavior rises above the pain of being childless or being ridiculed.  We see her moving toward God even though scripture tells us He closed her womb.  She still prays for not just a child but for God to do great things through that gift.  How many of us could do something like that?  How many could even come remotely close?  I do not believe such conduct is solely due to being an unusual person alone.  My view is you respond in such a way when you know God in very concrete reality.  This is what separates Hannah from the rest of us.  She takes her broken heart to God because He is her salvation. 

I read somewhere that pain is inevitable but suffering is optional.  That seems partly true to me.  What is hard is that the believer does deal with suffering more than anyone else.  We do have something at stake in our trials.  God works to shape our hearts to be more like His.  Hannah shows us that in her praying and her life.  We can also have our focus shifted from our self pity to God's bigger design.  Hannah may seem to pray with a selfish motive but remember she offers to return the child to God.  Again, how many of us could do that?  My first estimate says there are not many of us around with that courage.  We bear more resemblance to the first character who is mean than the one who knows God.  That is more tragic than not being able to pronounce the names in the first place.

Bro. Trey