Friday, April 15, 2016

Herder to Hero: Finding Purpose in the Everyday


Sometimes we want the grand purpose of a giant slayer when Jesus is asking us to be a faithful sandwich deliverer and sheep herder. 
David was often called from his sheep pen to the battlefield...but it was only to take the soldiers their sandwiches. His dad sent him to feed the fighters and bring back, not his own amazing story, but the story of his brothers. 
David lived his life serving sheep, slaying animals, satisfying hunger, and telling other people's stories. 
Instead of getting to stay where all the action was, "David went back and forth", the Bible says. 

Maybe we can all relate to that a little? 
Stuck in the back and forth. Living what feels like the movie "Ground Hog Day", listening to stories all around us, but so painfully aware we are never moving forward in our own

Before David was a hero, he was a herder. But it was that day in and day out herding that prepared him for the day he was to be a hero. 

When we are longing for some glorious purpose on a well manicured platform, what we need to understand is that it may show up as a dirty, screaming giant in the middle of your daily delivery. 
Will we be positioned?
Will we be ready? 
Will we consider it someone else's problem? 
Will we have tended our stinky sheep so faithfully that we are confident to take on the giant slaying?

I want to answer yes. 
But some days, I think I am so busy complaining about my back and forth, that I never even see the great big purpose he sends into my path. 

Our faithfulness in the back and forth positions us to be propelled into the heart of our purpose

When you have trusted God to fight for you and be with you in your behind the scenes battles, you won't run from that looming giant out in front of the world...you will run TO it. 
You will wonder why everyone else is running away. 
You will stand in confidence that God is bigger than that giant in the path of your purpose...because you know He put it there to propel and prepare you for whatever is next. 
Just like with David, people may not understand your willingness to take on the giant...but, they didn't see the fights you've already come through. 
You can say with boldness, 
“The LORD who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!” 
1 Samuel 17:37 

The herder became a hero because he trusted in Him. 
The Lord who rescues is the Lord who redeems. 
He rescues you in the everyday to redeem you for that some day. 
That day your purpose looms large and you know for a fact you are beaten and unable so you consider running back to the sheep pen and sandwich delivery. But then, you stop listening to everyone scream in fear and discount your contribution and you start listening to the One who has assured your victory because HE is more than able!! 

Don't resent your days in the sheep pen...its preparing you for the giant that marks the path of your purpose. 

#SimpleTruth for your everyday as you wait for that some day.