His name was Bob. I was pastoring my first church, which was a church plant—we were still gathering a nucleus and had around twenty people on an average Sunday. He was in one of the larger churches on the district and had been there for more than two decades. Although experienced in ministry, he’d developed a track record of being somewhat combative and pugnacious. If something didn’t go his way, he’d acquired a reputation of being confrontation and trying to intimidate you.
I remember the occasion when I found out how well-earned his reputation was. I’d recently been elected president of the council that oversees the planning of district activities for teenagers, and one of the first things that fell on my plate was to oversee the planning of the fall retreat. With the council, we made the decision to expand the retreat to where it ended on a Sunday morning rather than Saturday night. But recognizing the potential fallout, we had also adjusted registration costs and given every church the opportunity to determine for themselves what worked best for them—i.e., if they wanted their group to return on Saturday night so their kids could be in church on Sunday, they could pay a reduced rate. Our thinking was that a number of kids who’d come to this event were probably fringe kids who wouldn’t go to church on Sunday morning and extending the retreat for one more session would give us an opportunity to influence them with the message of the gospel.
Bob caught wind of our decision, didn’t like it, and decided to let me know the level of his displeasure. He called me on the phone and read me riot act for close to an hour ... “You are undermining the local church” ... “If you were a real leader, you’d reverse that decision immediately” … “It’s hard for me to imagine someone with no more experience in ministry than you knows more than I know.” I stood my ground. “Bob—I hear you and I respect your opinion, but we’re not going to change. This decision was made by the council. We cleared it with the DS and it has his support. I am not going to unilaterally and single-handedly reverse our decision because you don’t like it.”
Bob was an early giant in my ministry. He was also my introduction into the reality of, and need for, conflict resolution in Kingdom work. Dealing with him, I felt a small measure of what David must have felt when he took on Goliath. I was an insecure kid in my upper 20’s and trying to figure out this thing called pastoral ministry. This guy had been pastoring almost as long as I’d been alive—perhaps longer—and had undoubtedly faced numerous situations over the years. What am I doing taking him on? Who am I to be doing battle here? But yet, as I look back, I felt a tremendous sense of satisfaction that I held my ground, took the heat, and didn’t knuckle under but, rather, paved way for an event whose registration had increased significantly when we left the district a few years later.
In my last post, I began to look at the story of David and Goliath in hopes of extracting principles and insights we can use in dealing with giants—those things that intimidate us and threaten to overwhelm us. As I mentioned, this is more than the story of a young man who stepped up and saved the day for Israel. It’s a narrative account that gives us insight into how we can face life’s daunting dilemmas and emerge victorious.
I also mentioned that giant killers don’t start out as giant killers. David didn’t have a history of handling Goliaths. He wasn’t even a member of Saul’s army. But what he did have was a history of responsibly handling those matters that were entrusted to him. He made it a practice to faithfully carry out the assignments directed his way (as you recall, he came upon this situation because he was doing just that for this father). In so doing, it built into his life a character and substance he could draw on when the challenge of a giant presented itself. Through his day-in, day-out obedience, he was developing some skills and putting a foundation in place.
In this post, I want to consider a second characteristic of giant killers. Giant killers see the potential reward if they defeat the giant; they have an eye to the spoils. One of the more overlooked sections of this story highlights that truth for us.
Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.” David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.” (1 Samuel 17:25-27, NIV)
The situation had become so desperate Saul needed to offer an incentive to anyone who’d take on and defeat Goliath. So when David arrived on the scene, he was asked if he was aware of external motivations Saul had put in place. He promised the man who’d kill Goliath three things: (1) great riches, (2) his daughter’s hand in marriage (which, if you read on in David’s life, you realize wasn’t that much of a reward), and (3) his family would be exempt from taxation. A stimulus package was offered to anyone who’d step forward but, so far, no takers.
You almost perceive amazement in David’s voice: “(He) asked the men standing near him, ‘What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel?’” (v, 26a) “Excuse me? Did I hear you right? Did you say great wealth, marry into the royal family, and perpetual tax exemption for the family of the one who does this?” That’s a good deal, and it obviously factored into his decision to take on Goliath even though no one else was willing to do so in spite of his repeated taunts. So—why was David willing to step up when no one else was? The answer seems obvious to me: The difference was in how he sized things up. David first saw the potential and then the problem, whereas everyone else saw the problem and then the potential. David saw the possibilities more than the predicament. He wasn’t naïve or blind to the predicament, but it wasn’t foremost in his thinking.
There’s a major difference between these two approaches and, in many ways, it boils down to this: The army first saw Goliath and David first saw God. “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (v. 26b). David was incensed! “Who does this guy think he is talking about our God like that? Where does He get off saying these kinds of things?” There’s an anger—a real indignance—at Goliath’s insolence toward God. There’s a sense in which David saw the situation in spiritual terms while everyone else saw it in from a human perspective.
This illustrates the fact giant killers look at things through a different lens. They utilize a different filter and see things others are unwilling or unable to see. Did the army of Israel know about the reward? Yes—in fact, they are the ones who informed David. They told him what the king would do for anyone that would go to battle—receive the loot, marry the girl, and duck the taxes. But, to them, the problem was bigger than the payoff. The obstacle was bigger than the inducement.
In any giant-testing situation, two emotions will inevitably be present: courage and fear—in fact, they tend to run on parallel tracks. The inner compulsion to step up and tackle the challenge coupled with a reticence about the consequences and uncertainty regarding our abilities. Very seldom in life is the presence of one at the expense of the other to where it’s all courage and no fear or all fear and no courage. It’s typically a matter of the relative balance between the two. But as long as fear outweighs courage, we’ll shy away from conflict and hide in our tent, waiting for someone else to step forward and accept the challenge. Only when our sense of courage rises above level of our fear will we walk into the arena and do battle with the giant.
That’s exactly what’s going on in story. When David hears what will happen to the person who takes on the giant, his courage begins to surge and it assumes a dominant role in his life. It’s not that fear is gone and no longer exists. But as courage rises, fear is no longer calling the shots like it was for the rest of Saul’s army. Remember: they’d been listening to Goliath for forty days. The only sound you could hear from them was the sound of their knees knocking. But for David, fear is in the back seat. And courage, born of faith and an unbending confidence in God, is in the front seat. And as a result, he was willing to step up when those around were shrinking back.
So—what does this have to do with the giants you and I face … the seemingly insurmountable difficulties we know we’ve got to deal with that intimidate the daylights out of us and leave us paralyzed and hypnotized into inactivity?
I believe there is a reward that accompanies the successful taking on of a giant, regardless of who we are and the nature of the giant. I was listening to a leadership podcast recently and the guy being interviewed said something interesting: When we, as leaders, do what’s easier or personally preferable for us rather than doing what’s in the best long-term interest of the organization we’re serving, we sacrifice the moral authority to lead. In other words, when we allow our fear to override our courage—when we recoil and refuse to meet the challenge the situation demands of us—we not only surrender our integrity, but we also come away feeling worse about ourselves. We see ourselves as an imposter … a phony … a fake. But conversely, every time we summon the courage to take on a giant, it does wonders for our self-respect. We look back and say, “That took guts!” And we experience a sense of pride—not kind that makes us haughty, pompous, or pretentious, but a feeling of satisfaction and inner sense of accomplishment. We come away feeling better about ourselves.
We live in day when a lot of people struggle with self-respect and self-esteem. The issues are very connected, for the problem of self-esteem is fundamentally a matter of respect—if you respect yourself, you’ll esteem yourself and if you respect others, you’ll esteem them. Esteem and respect are cousins. And counselors will tell you that many of the people they work with deal with these kinds of issues … that beyond the symptoms this is the core disease. They somehow got the message—whether it be from their family of origin or just involvement in a flawed, fallen world—that they’re not valuable, worthwhile, or worthy of respect. Many marriages struggle and fail because one or both partners have negative self-esteem which fuels the hurtful behaviors that can cause the marriage to go under. Many personal and relational difficulties can be linked to shortcomings in area of self-respect and self-esteem. For when we see ourselves as inferior, unworthy, or “less than”, we typically do things that are damaging to selves and others to compensate. Those things tend to make us feel better about ourselves in the short-term, but they wear off quickly and have an adverse effect on our relationships over the long haul.
I believe God has woven into the world a means by which this problem can be addressed. One of the best ways to build respect and re-establish a healthy sense of esteem comes through taking on and tackling the giants in your life ... letting courage surge and fear subside … keeping an eye to spoils and saying, “You know, it looks overwhelming and feels intimidating, but I’m going to give it my best shot believing that, with God’s help, I can do this.” Giants are a God-ordained tool to fashion respect and esteem in our lives—a mechanism to address deficits and deficiencies. When you avoid a giant—when you don’t look it square in the eye and wimp out—your sense well-being and esteem goes down. But when you look it head on, move towards it, and show courage, there’s a surge of life inside you. You come away not only with heightened sense of who God is and the vastness of resources at His disposal, but also a greater regard for who you are and the things you’re capable of.
A powerful example of this is a Pakistani girl named Malala Yousafzai. You may not recognize her name, but you might recognize her story. She grew up in a part of Pakistan influenced by the Taliban that tried to ban girls from attending school. Blessed with a curious mind and educated parents that greatly valued schooling, she didn’t comply and went to school. In 2012, at the age of 15, she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman while riding home on the bus. Intended to silence her, the attack did the exact opposite. As media outlets picked up on her story, it sparked a global outpouring of support and expanded her platform. She spoke out about the human rights abuses under the Taliban. She co-authored a memoir. She was invited to speak at the United Nations. And in 2014 at the age of 17 she became the youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Her courage and resilience, in the face of a most intimidating giant, heightened her sense of purpose and self-respect. She’s a clear example of someone who faced a giant and walked away stronger in spite of the obvious perils and dangers that came with doing so.
Some of us have shied away from confronting some giants in our lives because we don’t feel we have what it takes to successfully take them on. There are issues in our lives that are standing in the valley and shouting at us like Goliath taunted the army of Israel, and we’ve chosen to run and hide in tent. I don’t know what your giant is—a habit that enslaves you … a person that intimidates you … a situation that unnerves you … a problem that seems to overwhelm you. But I know this: God wants you to realize the potential and see the worth He sees in you, but the key to seeing it for yourself begins with agreeing to step forward and engage that giant. He wants to forge in your life a deep sense of self-respect and self-esteem, but you’ve got to allow Him to reinforce your courage and reduce your fear to where you’ll walk out on to the battlefield. For you, the journey can begin by keeping eye to the spoils and focusing on the payoff and not the problem.