"The Story"

So life is about slowing down, living in the here and now, surrounding yourself with good people, spending your time in the right places, and working hard to gain a perspective more like God's. Where are you today? How did you get here? 

Where are you right now? Physically yes, but mentally, spiritually, emotionally. What things happened and fell into place for you to be there? Was there a disappointment or "no" from God included in the list? 

I have been spending a lot of time reading about David's life and how God formed a heart like his, that we so often seek. (clear through the length of this entry) As a pre-teen David spent his days out in the wilderness, as a shepherd, tending his father's sheep. Samuel comes along and after looking over all of David's brothers, picks him to anoint as the future king of Israel! Begin to imagine what was running through David's teenage mind! I am going to be king over Israel? Who am I that God would choose me? I can only imagine David was feeling a scramble of mixed emotions including some huge anxieties, fears, much uncertainty, and I am convinced that David never imagined a road to the throne like the one God had planned. 

After his anointing with Samuel, king Saul called upon David to serve in his courts. Here, away from his family and duties as a shepherd, David meets Jonathan. David and Jonathan formed the truest written account of friendship we have on record. A friendship that 'let NOTHING come between them.' And oh how SO many things could have come between them. Jonathan was Saul's son, the prince of Israel, the next in line for the throne. As 'Saul slain his thousands and David his ten thousands,'  'the LORD was with David, but had departed from Saul.' David became wiser, stronger, and more popular with time. Saul's heart grew more and more jealous of David, in fear of compromising him and his families lineage to the throne. 

As fear rose and jealousy grew, how easy would it have been for Jonathan to jump on the bandwagon his father, the king, began? After all, the throne was lawfully his. Jonathan looked at the world through a different set of eyes than his father. In David, Jonathan SAW the characteristics of a king and CHOSE to offer everything he had to make sure God's chosen tool made it to his destination. Jonathan could have been angry at God for promising David the throne, had opportunity to betray David time and time again, but instead he CHOSE to love David, CHOSE to stand up to a heart of darkness, even if it was his father. If you read the account of David and Jonathan's' friendship, David did NOTHING to earn Jonathan's love and respect, Jonathan CHOSE David. In the same way, God chooses us. 

FIFTEEN years passed from the time David was anointed by Samuel to the day he was actually crowned king of Israel. Saul hated David, truly despised him. He attempts at Davids life with his spear while David is still in his presence and personally hunts him down later on. If your life was in danger, your family was also in danger. Davids family is forced to pack up their life and relocate in a foreign land. We never hear of them again, they despise David for ruining their lives, after they come to him for strength and protection with the rest of the distressed, burdened, and weary people of the land. Some kingdom huh? Same shepherd, different sheep. 

God wasn't finished. Saul pursued David harder, he pushed him out into a physical desert, but also an emotional and spiritual desert, David was forced to flea, alone. Read through some of David's Psalms; they are pretty Job like, David was depressed. How could he not be? All his hopes and dreams that the LORD instilled and incited in him by anointing him had to have been smashed to smithereens. At twenty years old, David is literally running for his life, abandoned by his family. To top it all off, David has no one to confide in. It's not like he and Jonathan could skype or text. During these next ten years of David's life, God prepares his chosen one, even further, to be the leader he needs to be. 

Amidst hunger, which let's be serious makes everything ten times worse than it actually is, is fatigue, fear, anxiety…the list could continue, David is cave hopping. Living off the land, understanding the terrain, killing lions (no tigers) and bears, oh my! Ironic that David spent his younger years as a shepherd boy? 

David has the opportunity, more than once, to take Saul's life. Yet he refuses. David wasn't interested in simply getting to the throne. He wanted to get to the throne God's way, even if it was the hardest thing he would ever live through. God clearly states, "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: it is MINE to avenge." (Rom 12:19) Thinking twice about really praying for your enemies? They will be victims of God's wrath! David respected God more than he desired revenge. Temptations we face may not always be from the evil one, but may instead be a test from God.

As David lived and looked ahead, his future seemed pretty bleak. What did he do? Prayed, the most practical response that I think we often overlook. David admitted his need for the LORD and begged for deliverance from his situation, (one of many parallels to Christ) cried aloud to God, and poured out his complaints before him. Pouring out our troubles to everyone else makes us a complainer, but God just hears a melody. 

"…We pour out our miseries 

God just hears a melody

The honest cries of breaking hearts

Are better than a Hallelujah…"

(Amy Grant, Better Than a Hallelujah) 

As God continues to use the struggles leading to the throne to prepare His chosen king, David rehearses his trust in God and continues to seek his will. On more than one written account, before David is on the throne, he physically asks God what it is that the LORD desires. Ever feel like you are working so hard, but feel God isn't  holding up His end of the deal? The holy spirit ALWAYS does His job, but we don't always do ours. We work SO hard sometimes when it should be just the opposite. Let go. 

We get so independent and self sufficient so fast when life is without trials. Why do we think it is supposed to be easy? God never promised life would be easy or fair, beauty of grace, but He DOES promise that he will use pain for GOOD and sustain us EVERY step of "the way." 

At the age of thirty, (same age Jesus "began" his ministry) FIFTEEN years after being anointed, David is crowned king of Israel. Saul and his sons, yes that included Jonathan, have been killed. 

Let's review what David learned. Knew how to lead, how to be led, knew the land, knew how to fight, knew true friendship, knew betrayal, KNEW faith, knew patience, knew hunger, and I am missing several, but more importantly knew how to do any of the above WITH God. Life is not about the throne, it's about getting there. It's the journey that matters. 

How well are you walking? Are you following close enough to Christ's heels to be covered by the dust he kicks up? The hebrew term for walk is 'halak,' also translated as 'living out the story.' How will you know how He' halaks' if you are not immersed in his word? 'Halak-ing' is no easy task, but, God promises to be faithful, promises to 'halak' with us. Often times this is through a Jonathan. Someone who will give anything for you, and encourage you when 'halak-ing' becomes difficult. Hazak, the hebrew word for 'be strong' means to encourage or cheer the story on. 

Where are you right now? Fifteen years from now will you have a story of God's faithfulness to tell? In the heat of the moment, it often seems like God and faithfulness cannot be in the same sentence… remember, perspective. Be a Jonathan, cheer the story on, 'hazak!' Seek a heart like David, walk as Jesus walks, 'halak!'