Delilah lulled Samson to sleep with his head in her lap, and then she called in a man to shave off the seven locks of his hair. In this way she began to bring him down, and his strength left him.
-Judges 16:19
“What was I thinking?” Maybe Samson said something like this to himself as he sat in prison. In his weakened state, he could not even break the bronze shackles which held him. The Bible’s strongest man was now weak, helpless and blind.
I’m amazed that he told Delilah the secret to his strength. After all, she did try every method Samson gave her to subdue him. Didn’t he realize that she would cut his hair? Once his secret was revealed, his strength was taken. He was captured and his eyes gouged out. Samson was blind, however, long before anyone touched his eyes. He was blinded by love, lust, passion, or a combination of the three.
Every man has a certain soft spot for a beautiful woman. I learned of this vulnerability early in my life. Carrie Owens, my first grade “girlfriend,” transferred to another school. I remember grabbing my yearbook, climbing my favorite tree in the front yard, and weeping as I looked at her picture. I think I even sang to her 1×1 inch black-and-white photo. I guess this was quite sophisticated romantic behavior for a six year old. I did, of course, recover (maybe I was distracted from my grief by the latest cartoon); but the soft spot had been hit. It wouldn’t be the last time.
No matter how strong or level-headed I try to be, the vulnerability remains. I can get hurt. When this happens to me, I get the feeling of a lump in my throat. The sensation instantly takes me back to younger days—teenage years and beyond. I’ve learned to be more careful, but there’s no way to protect myself completely. Under the right circumstances, I can be reduced to a sobbing, lovesick, helpless six year old.
I guess this is every single man’s dilemma. We want to be strong, yet we can be so vulnerable. We’ve all been hurt. Sometimes the wounds are self-inflicted by our own foolish choices. Sometimes it’s just an inevitable part of life and the quest for love. Like it or not, most of us bear Samson’s scars.
(This post may get deleted at any moment—I may lose my nerve and decide that it’s just too sappy and corny).