David's Captains

    If you ever have a chance, sit down with your Bible and open to 1 Chronicles 11. There you will find the story recorded of the three captains in David's army who fought their way through a host of Philistines in order to bring David a drink.

    These men were pure legends! There aren't a lot of details, but there are enough. One of the captains killed two lion-like men. He also went down into a snowy pit and killed a lion. To top it all off, he fought an Egyptian that the Bible lists as a man of great stature who stood five cubits high, which is about seven and a half feet. He went against this giant armed with only a club, plucked the giant's own spear (which was the size of a weaver's beam) from his hand, and slew him!

    Another of the captains reportedly killed 300 of the enemy single-handedly. The story does not tell us what exploits the third captain experienced, but he, too, is listed as being a man of strength and valor. These are feats worthy of mention. They are of the sort to come within at least a stone's throw of the acts of Samson.

    When I read stories like this, I wonder how my tiny contributions in life can ever count for very much. Another day of making lesson plans and checking papers doesn't exactly put me anywhere near the rank of the three captains. 

    But here's the truth: I don't need to be in that position. The place I've been asked to fill doesn't require the skills needed to defeat 300 enemy soldiers. God has given me other skills, skills that I can use to succeed in whatever place He has set me in. No, I wouldn't be much use fighting a lion in a snowy pit, but I'd like to see that captain painting with a bunch of third and fourth graders!

    Sometimes it's hard to be happy with my skill set. I want more, bigger, better. Yet I must find the humility to be happy within the arena where God has placed me. If I live striving to better a skill I haven't been gifted and don't need for the place I have been given to fill, I am really an utter failure and dishonor to God, no matter how good I become at the thing I've set out to do.

    Often it is our own ideals that get in our way. We subconsciously blame God for not giving us what we imagine we need. Maybe I think if I could only sew well I would be able to be more helpful. Maybe it's cooking that I imagine would put me in a place of service. I've heard people who wish they could sing better, and those who wish they could write better. There are teachers who wish they were more creative and those who wish they were more structured.

    Yes, we may be asked to grow in some areas, and that's OK, but I believe we dishonor God when we complain that we don't have the skills we need. He has promised to give us whatever it is that we need to fill the place He has given us, and we can rest in the fact that His promises are always true.

    May we each find joy, not in striving to accomplish our own ideals, but in fulfilling the plan of our Heavenly Father.