THREE STRIKES
[7-minute read]
Many of us automatically subscribe to societal ideas of how people should live, and how realities should play out in their lives according to their biology, personalities and choices. With very little prompting, we say people are too this or that for them to experience anything new.
Since biblical times, men and women had responded to God’s call to action by first looking at what they were incapable of doing before they eventually found the resolve to obey God in both big and small ways!
This week, we dive into 1 Samuel 16:6-13 to see how a fresh-faced and unfledged David emerged as God’s chosen leader to the chagrin of his stronger and older brothers who were paraded before the prophet Samuel for (unknown to them) kingship. If you are thinking that surely a godly leader should be good at talent spotting for God, well, no one in the room – including Jesse, the father of eight boys – got it right.
The prophet Samuel (aka king-maker) was sure that Jesse’s eldest son, Eliab, made the cut because he had the physique and charisma of a leader. However, Eliab was rejected (on the spot) by God. Jesse then brought in his six other sons in quick succession, leaving David out of the line-up without any second thoughts about it. He likely put the standard mental filters into action and all the older sons checked the boxes in one way or another. David, on the other hand, did not make the list.
At the same time, God was giving Samuel a quick lesson in leadership recruitment 101: “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Only the Spirit of God sees our hearts and only those who are guided by the Holy Spirit has the ability to discern a person’s character and potential for leadership.
So instead of asking about qualities and personality traits, Samuel asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”
Jesse responded, “There is still the youngest, he is tending the sheep.” In other words, this one is not an A-lister but a delisted!
Like Jesse, we often let commonly-held biases determine how we respond to God and others. We can let personal insecurities and immature thinking justify our inability to let God work out His plans through us, and stand in the way of our obeying God.
Here are three common thinking we count as strikes against God’s call.
Strike #1 The Youngest
There are many things we can change about ourselves except our age. Cosmetic enhancement may help us look more youthful but it does not remove years off our lives. While we know that character and wisdom are not determined by age, being older also does not guarantee that we won’t make the darndest mistakes in life and reverse years of goodness we have worked hard to achieve!
David might have been the youngest in his family but he had a heart that, according to biblical accounts, was always after God’s own heart. This was the kingly quality that Samuel prophesied earlier in 1 Samuel 13:14 when he told King Saul, “But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”
David might not yet have demonstrated the fully-developed qualities of faith and leadership traits God desired, and he might still make stupid life mistakes later, but God had placed His blueprint for kingship in that heart.
Let’s not forget other spectacular biblical stories that started when God called ordinary people to step out of passivity and into His action plan. There was Queen Esther who thought only about her own safety when tasked to approached the King to save the Israelites. There was Gideon who was also tasked to save the Israelites and he countered by reminding the angel, “have you forgotten that my family is the weakest clan and I am the least in the family.”
When God calls us, it’s never about how well we think we fit the call. Stop giving God excuses for what He is prompting you to do. Lame excuses may get you off the hook but they will keep you hooked to bad habits, false humility and helplessness.
Strike #2 Not a Warrior
Modern day election campaigns have become entertainment to the masses as candidates declare their supremacy over others. Likewise, people would have expected anyone who was kingly material to possess the necessary credentials and training, a strategic mind and the proven ability to lead armies to war. Contrastingly, David was a harpist and a shepherd who wasn’t even enlisted in the army. His track record was in the shepherding of bleating sheep and goats. Could he even fill the kingly shoes?
But David always had an innate sense of who his enemy was and who was enabling him in his everyday battles. When he would later step up to face Goliath, he unabashedly rattled off his credentials as a shepherd (1 Samuel 17:34-37). As far as God was concerned, there was an undeniable warrior in the one who would later become also a Psalmist and a king.
Not surprisingly, the Psalms were replete with military jargons and metaphors. “Praise be to the Lord my Rock who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.” (Psalm 144:1-2). At the same time, there are references to shepherding referencing God as our Shepherd in the entire Psalm 23.
From David’s perspective, every challenge, trial and battle was a training ground for developing reality-shattering faith in God. It bodes well for us, too, to know that every problem or pressure is a place to engage God to find who the true enemy is. What seems insolvable or a stalemate today may also be a result of the faulty filters we use to see ourselves and our challenges.
Strike #3 An Unknown
To David’s family, he was just a shepherd boy and an errand boy. And even though he was later called to play the harp in Saul’s palace, the king had no impression of him.(1 Samuel 16:14-23)
In fact, Saul asked Abner, the commander of the army, “Whose son is this young man?” (1 Samuel 17:55)
When his persistent inquiry came up empty, Saul approached David himself and asked, “Whose son are you, young man?” (1 Samuel 17:58).
Yet, whether it was to shepherd sheep, play the harp on demand or fight Goliath, each call had a different requirement for David to deliver. The shepherd needed to work in a remote place and in the open, harsh outdoors. The harpist needed only be heard and not seen. To take down Goliath, David had to emerge from obscurity to face – not an adoring crowd – but a treacherous enemy.
You may be well-known, well-liked, or rubbing shoulders with certain people but these do not confirm God’s call on your life. Whether God calls you to make a thought known to others in a more public way, or if He prompts you to reach out to someone to have a very private conversation, you are just His mouthpiece. You don’t need branding or standing to deliver the change that God wants.
As Christians, our purpose in life is not for people to see us shine but so that others will see Jesus through our lives - even if nobody knows us.
Remove the strikes you have placed on yourself that stand between your obedience and the fulfilment of your life purpose. Remember, God would never use anything in your life as a lid over you.
This is a summary and reflection based on a virtual BIR Session held on 29 July 2023.
