“I Am Not Worthy”

“God lifts up the poor from the dust and seats them with princes.” — from 1 Samuel 2

The missionaries in London decided that the churches along the Niger needed a bishop, a leader for all the churches and ministers. They decided that the bishop should be an African. And they chose Samuel.

His family remembered that Samuel did not want to be a bishop at all. “I am not worthy,” he said. He wanted to stay a humble servant. But at last he agreed, saying, “It is the Lord; let Him do what seemeth Him good.”

On 29 June 1864, in the great cathedral at Canterbury in England, Samuel Ajayi Crowther was made the first African bishop of the Anglican Church. The boy who had been sold as a slave was now a bishop!

An old lady came to the service. The story goes that when she found someone else in her seat, she would not move. She said she had every right to that seat, because she had taught the new bishop his alphabet! It was Mrs. Davey, his teacher from Bathurst, now called Mrs. Weeks.

Being a bishop did not make Samuel proud. He asked people not to call him “My Lord.” If there was only one chair in a room and a schoolteacher came in, the bishop would stand up and give the teacher his seat.

God loves to lift up people who are humble. You do not need to be important to be used by God. You just need to say yes to him.

Dear God, please make me humble like Samuel. Help me to put others first and to say yes to whatever you ask me to do. Amen.