David & His Slingshot

When you were a kid, did you ever try walking around the house in a pair of your parent’s shoes? With every step you took there was an awkward clunk, and after tripping a few times you decided you couldn’t walk in them and put your shoes on and ran outside to play. You discovered that nothing fits as good as what is made just for you.  

David, a young shepherd boy, seemed to know this as well as he prepared to go to battle against a 9 ft. giant named Goliath in 1 Samuel 17:38-40.  At first, David set aside his shepherd’s clothing and slingshot and put on King Saul’s armor and weapons.  When David couldn’t walk without an awkward clunk, he quickly realized that he didn’t fit into someone else’s armor.  He didn’t try to make it fit, but rather took it off so he could put his clothes back on that were sized to fit him.   He chose to fight this battle as his authentic self, with the slingshot that he used to defeat many lions and bears that tried to attack his sheep. 

Often we may try to fit into something that looks good on someone else and we clunk around trying to walk in it.  However, our true effectiveness comes when we walk in who God made us to be.   David could have easily replaced his clothing and weapons with the finest that Israel had to offer, but he chose to put on and trust what God had given him, not man. 

We are uniquely made and equipped for what we are called to do and aren’t to compare ourselves to someone else.  2 Corinthians 10:12 b says that those “measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”   David held his head up high in the midst of being different from the army of Israel and walked in his unique giftings.

Don’t ever underestimate what God has given you.  David’s shepherd bag and slingshot weren’t as shiny and brilliant as Saul’s armor, but it is what won the battle.