For Sunday, June 21, 2009
Unencumbered in Hard Times - Lesson from David - #2
I Samuel 17 (David’s Goliath)
Into every one’s life enters Goliath, those gigantic obstacles that would threaten life; challenge our dreams, values, and faith, diminish hope, or turn us away from the possibilities of fuller living. We hit the wall, the Goliath wall, paralyzing life. Fear sets in. Those overcome by fear retreat and go no further, holding all their hopes in hidden remembrance as they go. Leaders take on the harsh reality of the gigantic obstacles and seek a way to deal with them, get around them or remove them. Leadership strategy can differ. In the Hebrew scripture story of David and Goliath we read of 2 leadership strategies; one directed by brute strength and one directed by a spirit within.
You know the story. There are lots of misperceptions around the story found in the first book of Samuel. There is the notion of David being only a little boy and yet the earlier chapter speaks of David already known to be a “man of valor, a warrior, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the Lord is with him” (I Sam. 16:18). There is the notion that King Saul never met David, but already David has been his servant. We read of a worried father, Jesse, concerned for his sons in battle and so he sends the youngest, David, into the battle stage to check on them. There is the squabbling of the older brothers telling David to go back home to the sheep. All these spin around the story to make it one of the beloved David stories.
This story, today, asks me questions about leadership. Does leadership come from an intimating, power-filled presence? Goliath led the Philistines in battle against Israel because as their champion; he was intimidating in stature, in brute force. Everyone, even those on his own side of the fight were afraid of him. Goliath bred fear. Difficult obstacles in life tend to do that. All sorts of fears swirl around them. Besides Goliath as a front man to instill fear, he was backed up by a whole entourage of strength, fearsome even without Goliath. They came simply to impose themselves with power over and against their enemy. Some big companies do that. Some big business imposes brute strength against smaller business. Big ideas diminish smaller thoughts and notions. Established power is imposing. Some call this good leadership having created such formidable force.
King Saul and Israel were sucked into responding according to the status quo. Meet strength with more strength. Take them on in the same fashion, with the same strategy. Find some one courageous enough and strong enough to show more power. King Saul, with all his own stature (I Sam. 10:23) did not take on Goliath. He offered prizes for who ever would be courageous and strong enough to accomplish the task of defeat for him. How often does leadership bribe others with prizes of notoriety in order to deal with the hard problems facing the group? Rather than show humility, rather than converse and devise and plan of cooperation and group effort, we seek heroes who will do it for us single handedly. Saul’s leadership of getting someone else to deal with the problem was a leadership based on fear, not based on faith or hope or possibilities.
When David offered himself to confront Goliath I imagine a sigh of relief from everyone that some “other” sacrificial person was offered up allowing them one more day of reprieve. King Saul also, I imagine, was greatly relieved to avoid the embarrassment of no one willing to take on the taunts of Goliath. Saul’s leadership continued to promote force of strength, giving way to status quo of how to fight the good, or bad fight, the ways of the world. Saul imposed his own plan onto David as to how David should lead. Put up your defenses. Put on your protective gear. Cover yourself. Make sure you have all the weapons needed. Saul so encumbered David with the defensive “stuff” to protect him that he could not move, perhaps not even breath much. What a joke to even think of David suddenly burdened with another’s strategy of how to confront life’s obstacles.
In David we see an emerging leader who refused to be paralyzed by a huge obstacle. We see a new leader who asks questions around the camp for information (17:23-27). We don’t see a bit of fear guiding his actions. We only see his willingness to engage the tough situation with his own gifts and abilities. He refuses to be sucked into doing things the conventional way because someone thinks it’s the only way. Guided by his inner strength, the Spirit of God and his own spirit, his gifts, his past accomplishments and learning, and his passion, he offers himself as he is, unencumbered by all the stuff of fear and conventionality. He walks out boldly with no sense of fear nor failure in mind. It seems David’s motivation is not the end prize for his own glory, but simply recognizing a gigantic problem facing all of the people in which he had gifts to offer. David acted as servant to Saul, servant to his brothers, servant to his father, servant for the people of Israel, and servant of God.
Leadership is best when it is unencumbered servanthood, offering simply gifts given both in the past and present, in service of the whole. Leadership has strength when it is not based on fear nor paralyzed by it, but acts on truth, inner truth, in behalf of greater truth, yet not limited by private truth. Leadership is faithful when it does not give in to doing things in the usual way, but is willing to risk simplicity, vulnerability, and originality.
Remembering his past, remembering the lions and bears, early obstacles in the service of his sheep, David returned to his roots for his strength for this bigger problem. Okay, perhaps in the defeat of Goliath David had to “beat his chest” a bit and likely found it hard not to get a “big head” when all the accolades came his way. Emerging leader, yes. Human, more so, even as we shall see as the story of leadership continues.
These questions aid reflection for leadership: What kind of leadership do I offer when obstacles come my way? How does fear shape leading or serving? How often do I wait for someone else to rescue me from the situation? How quickly do I look for some defensive tools to protect me, or trust in some conventional schemes to deal with the gigantic task? To what degree do I trust myself, my own gifts, and inner being to confront the problems presented in life? Where is God in the midst of life’s difficult realities? Do I act in conjunction with God’s Spirit within for my own benefit or am I in God’s service as well in the service of others through my action?
O God, may I and all your leaders be unencumbered by the external pressures of our lives and the many voices that were offer unhelpful advice. Listening to your Spirit within may each one offer servant-leadership as each one is led for the good of all.
“I will give thanks to Yahweh with my whole heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High”– a Psalm of David (Psalm 9)
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