David vs. Goliath...who you got in your bracket?

So, it is that time of year!  Statistically the worst time of year for employers because employee production slows tremendously.

Three different phenomena/events are all happening RIGHT NOW!!!  Combined they are a boss’s NigHTmArE!!

1.      First Week of Spring

2.      Turkey Season (possibly a southern thing only)

3.      MARCH MADNESS!

Yes, that is right.  The 68-team tournament to decide who the Collegiate National Champion is in basketball.  People who have watched approximately-exactly ZERO seconds of basketball will now fill out brackets and enter picking contests with abandon.  My Dad is one of those people.  He couldn’t tell you a single NCAA player’s name from any of the 68 teams.  Not one. But he has already entered 4 contests and printed out each bracket and will mark each win and loss....

 
Casinos and Bookies will see the most action outside of the Super Bowl that they will see all year.  Folks will be scurrying to try to profit off of a team they couldn’t find on a map if you paid them!  Where is Bucknell’s campus?  Creighton?  Northwestern State, anyone?

And oh, those small school mascots!  People will be pulling for Billikens, Shockers, Jackrabbits, Gaels and Zips!

Terms will be thrown around in society like “March Madness” (even though the tournament now ends in April).  People will be pulling for “Cinderellas” and “MidMajors” as the make their way to the “Sweet 16”, the “Elite 8”, and ultimately the “Final Four”.

And there will be many match-ups that people with NO knowledge at all of the Bible will call:

DAVID VS. GOLIATH

This is a game between a small school, usually no one knows anything about taking on a Big-Time College Team.  These matchups thrill the audience.  If the little guy can just hang around until the end, it is ratings GOLD for the TV networks.

Oh…and if the little guy wins?  They become media darlings!  I can still remember teams like Valparaiso, Princeton and Richmond beating Huge Favorites.  ESPN and CBS STILL show those highlights today.  And I assume they always will.

DAVID VS. GOLIATH

The implication comes across as the little guy with only one shot gets to try to take down the BIG GUY.  People with no knowledge or even desire to gain knowledge of the Bible are familiar with the story…

But I think we are misusing that story.

As a Follower of Christ, I am sure that this view of the story is exactly backwards.  180 degrees wrong.

If we were judging solely by the size of the human beings who took part in the epic battle that lasted about 10 seconds, then yes, David was the smaller physically.    But…what if you asked David his take on it?  Did he see this as some fight that he could luckily…if everything goes exactly right…might have a one-in-a-million chance of winning?

Look at what David said just before the encounter:

When Goliath looked at David and saw that he was only a boy, tanned and handsome, he looked down on David with disgust.  He said, “Do you think I am a dog, that you come at me with a stick?” He used his gods’ names to curse David.  He said to David, “Come here. I’ll feed your body to the birds of the air and the wild animals!”

 But David said to him,

“You come to me using a sword and two spears. But I come to you in the name of the Lord All-Powerful, the God of the armies of Israel! You have spoken against him. Today the Lord will hand you over to me, and I’ll kill you and cut off your head. Today I’ll feed the bodies of the Philistine soldiers to the birds of the air and the wild animals. Then all the world will know there is a God in Israel!  Everyone gathered here will know the Lord does not need swords or spears to save people. The battle belongs to him, and he will hand you over to us.”

Now…I could be wrong, but it doesn’t sound like David thought of himself as a long-shot.  He didn’t see himself as having a one-in-a-million chance.  He didn’t think of himself as the underdog….in fact…

I don’t think he thought of himself at all.

David tapped into something that so few of us, me included, just cannot seem to grasp.  No matter how many books I read or clichés I repeat acknowledging that “It isn’t about me…it’s about him,” do I REALLY GET IT? 

Do we as Followers TRULY understand what David did?  The Bible speaks repeatedly about how awesome and powerful and miraculous our GOD is…but do we live like that?  When is the last time I tapped into that and looked at my circumstances like David saw Goliath?  It has been a while, I am ashamed to admit…

We as Believers…if we TRULY BELIEVE…have GOT to get an eternity mindset.  A GOD thought process.  Call it a Christian Worldview if you like, but I think it goes far deeper than that.  It is a Christian Eternity View.  This world is not my aim.  My aim is Christ.

My prayer is that I would get this world out of my view and stop living like a walking, talking tiny little underdog…

On that field that day, GOLIATH was the underdog.  And only 1 person knew it….And poor LITTLE Goliath didn’t even have a one-in-a-million chance against a man who relied on Father’s power instead of his own.

Oh, to be like that shepherd boy.