One bridge further (All Saints Sermon here; yesterday’s post which rides on the sermon’s coattails, Bodies Talk here, today completes the spontaneous trilogy):

Yesterday I preached in school chapel to the first through seventh graders, and my assigned text was the story of David and Goliath. Gosh, it’s a great story, and “Goliath” is a descriptive and evocative word in our parlance today because of the origin story. So it’s a real, real familiar story. Especially to kids who have been in a Christian school their whole lives (or who have lived in the south, Bible-story-soaked area it is).

As I turned the story over in my head, wondering on a way in that wasn’t just telling the same thing again (nothing wrong with that!), an application slapped me upside the head.

My back’s been hurting this week, and it feels a bit overwhelming at times. Specifically when I try to move. When this mother-of-three can be still, it’s okay, I don’t notice much pain, and I can focus on whatever I’m doing. But have I mentioned that my “three” are boys in first grade, Pre-k 4, and 18 months old? Ahh yes. There’s not much stillness, cleanliness, or silence in our home (and praise God for it!). So my bodily reality has felt a little overwhelming.

Is there anything in your life that feels overwhelming? Anything that looms so large you can’t see around it? Maybe it’s so big it just blocks the sun right out. Something at work. Bills coming due. A wedge between you and a loved one. Health concerns. The truth is, we’re all facing down Goliath-sized situations.

But what does God show us about himself in the story of David and Goliath? God is big enough to defeat any insurmountable obstacle. God will protect and bring victory. It may not look like we expect (a slingshot), and it may not have the outcome we assume (a switch in the royal line), but God will look out for us, for anyone, who calls on him for help in the midst of problems and worries and situations that feel just too big.