He was just a boy, the youngest of eight sons. Too young to join his brothers in the army, he was dispatched alone to shepherd sheep.
The nights were dark as coal. He slept on the ground trembling to the howls and roars of predators piercing the silence.
He was just a boy.
Imagine the fear.
Too small to pull the bow. Too weak to wield sword or staff. He had only a sling.
Imagine a boy’s boredom, watching sheep.
By day, he slung stones.
At night, he played the harp. Worship became his safe place.
Alone and afraid, he talked to God. The Lord became his only companion.
Day after day, week after week, month after month, he watched sheep, slung stones, worshipped, and prayed.
When the lion crouched, he prayed and slung a stone.
He dropped a bear the same way.
When Goliath threatened his own, with the army of Israel cowering, David saw another predator. He prayed and slung a stone with the same deadly accuracy that dropped the lion and the bear. Courage emerged when confidence was challenged.
Everyone has self-doubts. Insecurities are rooted in the gap between who we know ourselves to be and who we want others to perceive us to be. The soldiers were trapped in that gap. Each posturing as bold and courageous, yet too insecure to step forward.
We live in a culture that encourages us to “fake it until you make it.” Image is everything. We focus more on who others think we are than on who we are. And the gap grows wide. We live in a country driven by insecurities.
Courage does not emerge from insecurity. Had David been coddled, celebrated by others for simply participating, there would have been no confidence from which courage could arise. Each challenge prepared him for the next. Praise simply for the sake of praise grows insecurity rather than confidence.
Without companions to impress, David embraced the presence of God. His gap was thin. His confidence was developed in prayer, worship, and the repetition of slinging stones. When challenged, David’s confidence became courage.
To expect courage to arise from a carefully honed image, is to build one’s house on shifting sand. When the storm comes, that image will collapse. Remember the soldiers of Israel? They had not built their confidence on the rock… and they stood down when they needed to stand up.
How wide is the gap between who others think you are and who you know yourself to be?
Insecurity can be crafted to look bold, confident, impressive… until courage is needed. Then the insecure stand down when they need to stand up. Confidence is less a gift from others than a result of faith and the repetition of experience.