1 Samuel 17:38-39 - "Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail, and David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, 'I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.' So David put them off."
Saul's armor was way too big for David. I know how David felt.
Ya know there's an old saying, "You're getting too big for your britches," which means you think too highly of yourself. But what about when your britches are too big for you? That's what happened to David in the Bible and to me.
I was about nine, and I was definitely overweight. But the soccer shorts that were assigned to me were ridiculously huge. I didn't realize it until our first game when I put on my uniform. Whoa! My shorts were so big that I had to hold a wad of the waist in my left hand. I remember thinking, "C'mon coach, I'm overweight, but really?" In the pregame warmups, all my teammates were laughing at me. Let's not even mention the ridicule of the other team. Have you ever seen someone trying to play soccer while holding up their britches? It's hilarious, with an element of watching a Stock Car Race; ya know, everyone's waiting for the Big One! Yes, the Big One, which is the moment the nine year old forgets about his britches, lets go of his britches, his britches fall down, he's exposed, and then trips over his "ankle britches" to boot on a muddy soccer field. Hilarious for the crowd! Humiliating for the nine year old!
In today's Bible verses, David refused to fight in the armor that was way too big, and he took it off. And I, as a nine year old, refused to play another moment in the over-sized soccer shorts.
And you should too!
The analogy is simple. Often when we're kids, other people have dreams for us that are way too big for us. They want us to become more than what we're ever capable of being: President or Bishop or a CEO or a Hall of Famer. It's like dressing us up in armor or soccer shorts that are way too big. But y'all, everybody can't be President or Bishop or a CEO or a Hall of Famer. Somebody needs to be a commoner.
The world needs commoners, ya know, the little guy. Commoners, average people, make this world work. Somebody's got to do the plain old ordinary jobs well or nothing would ever get done. And instead of trying to make the commoner more than they are and telling them they need to do more with their life, the commoner needs to be celebrated for faithfully showing up to work everyday and putting in a good day's work.
And I'm telling you this because I'm a pastor who constantly hears people feeling laughed at and looked down upon because they're not doing more and bigger things with their life. Hey, if there are 196 boys on my son's high school football team, then there's at least 150 commoners who need to be celebrated for doing things that the studs need done to have a team. And if there's 10 or 100 or 10,000 employees at your work, then 75% are commoners who need to be celebrated. Everybody can't be calling the shots.
So here's to you, dear friends! God celebrates you being just the right size and doing each day what needs to be done! God knows how he made you and loves you for the person you are!
And just like David, who was the ordinary, common, little-guy, shepherd-boy who went and conquered Goliath with his little, ordinary, shepherd sling-shot, let's us all go out there today, proud to be God's little guys and eager to conquer the world by faithfully doing the work that's before us!
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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