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"...REMEMBER ME JUST THIS ONE TIME..." This post is inspired by a 2010 Summon by the late Ps Tom Mwombo. It's good to direct credit where it's due. It's been 15years and it's fresh in my memory. I remember he was invited to pray for us the then KCPE candidates of Wanyama Pr School. Before then, I never really got well the story of Samson. Tom only picked certain key events of the story that he elaborated throughout his summon, which left me with a strong appetite to want to know more about this damn dude called Samson. See, the guy was a Nazirite; a vow made on him even before he was born. Upon research, I figured Numbers 6 outlines that as a Nazirite, bro was meant to stay away from Wine, Grapes, avoid contact with dead bodies, and not cut off his hair. Throughout his story as told in Judges, he breaks the first two fairly quickly. All that's left of his vow is his hair. A tenuous symbol of his relationship with God, a relationship that consistently takes third place to sex and vengeance. Those two finally catch up with him when he meets Delilah who seeks the secret of his strength. He seems to break all the rules, and not in a good way; Now here’s a guy who’s been blessed from birth with supernatural strength purposely intended to be used in God's service ~ to save the fledgling nation of Israel from its oppressors. And yet he spends most of his life getting into fights over women and screwing up. It’s not that I have a problem with his sex-life, nor the often (Jokingly) asked question of "Living in an era of no condom no contraceptives, and how bro manages to sleep with all these women still doesn't end up a Babydady!" ...Having feet of clay obviously he had to feel horny and keep seeing beautiful woman around~ including those from the enemies... but my guy just doesn’t seem to care that his life’s going off the rails. He’s the nearest thing the Bible has to a superhero, and yet it seems like he doesn't learn great spiritual lesson; “With great power comes great responsibility”. The lunatic is also selfish besides arrogance. I love superhero stories, plays & films. I can always re-read and rewatch them a plethora of times. Here's the thing; I read The Story of Sam annually ever since, coz it interests me, and every time I do, I get a new lesson. This New Year 2025 I've decided to put this lesson here to keep reminding MYSELF of it whenever I go through my posts in future. Son of Manoah is pushed to the wall by this woman's crazy obsession with his little secret. Na kama KAWAIDA yake he'd always lie to her and when the Philistines come, he thwacks them. The Bible says he lied to her three times, and each time Philistines came to imprison him, he'd fight them off. But this FOURTH TIME, under intense emotional pressure, bro finally gives in to the woman he loves, who he thinks also loves him. Tells her the secret, & as soon as she verifies this in her mind, Delilah takes advantage and prepares an ambush, shaving off his hair while he's in usingizi. But this time sio KAWAIDA. GOD is GONE. Am stressing the "Kawaida" coz I relate alot to this part. Typical case; I've crossed over to New Years for 30 yrs now and am deluded with this "Kawaida" norm; Aah I will just cross over as usual, live as usual, travel as usual, party as usual, work as usual, or trade as usual, earn it & spend it with the girl I think loves me at the moment, calling every day "just another day". I figured, DAILY 1500 average Kenyans wake up for their last times and here I am, still sharing in this breath of life with you fine people. "KAWAIDA" right! Samson with his inbuilt arrogance, thinking that his strength is his own and that it’ll never really be taken away, or he’s completely self-destructive, continuing in a relationship with someone set on betraying him. This time, GOD IS GONE. And so, his eyes are chopped off, and he’s made to grind grain, but while he’s doing this, the writer of Judges notes that Samson’s hair began to grow back. It’s a tiny detail, and fairly obvious ~ that’s what hair does after you cut it, right!, ~ but there’s more to it than that. Breaking the Nazirite vow wasn’t a permanent thing ~ if it was broken, then you could cut your hair and start again from scratch. Hmmm! Because soon after this, the Philistines are offering a sacrifice to their god Dagon, and as part of this, Samson is brought out to be humiliated, his God mocked. But Samson seems to now understand what’s been going on. Bro is now seeing more while eye-less than when he had the eyes on, O Jehovah 🙌. Now here's the Climax of my post; Throughout his story, God has been at work, but it almost seems to be behind the scenes,~ Samson, even if he knows it, he doesn’t really have a clear understanding or interests in the divine hand behind events; the narrator in Judges refers to God but Samson rarely does. Now, with his hair grown back, he seems to have stumbled towards humility and redemption: Samson Prayed; “...O Sovereign Lord, O God, PLEASE REMEMBER ME JUST THIS ONE TIME…” Judges 16:28🥹 Bro's still motivated by revenge, which in my opinion, isn't healthy still, but there’s humility here, an understanding that God is genuinely behind his great power and that the vow was something that should have been taken seriously. God honours this prayer, even though it’s belated and still somewhat self-serving, God does what He does best; COMES BACK, He does comeback. I call Him the "Enigma of Comebacks". Priority is always His Will. His plan. His purpose. Samson’s strength is restored. He destroys the temple of Dagon, ending the oppression of Israel. As Judges puts it; on this day, he killed greater number of Philistines than before. In his moment of self-sacrifice, his moment of brokenness, broken in the heart💔 and in flesh, he finally achieves the role he was meant to play right from birth. God's Will. He achieved what he didn't while he was in his prime. Samson screwed up ~ he screwed up royally ~ and yet he was still able to start again with God. In a messy sort of way he returns to God and that’s honoured, and despite the catalogue of mistakes that make up his life story, maybe it’s that MOMENT OF REDEMPTION that changes everything. I do accept things happen for reasons. He messed up, reached out to God, God heard, accorded him strength and he died one memorable death. With God it NEVER gets late, does it? ......"Strengthen me just this one last time O Lord God"....