How can we overcome the odds the way David did against Goliath?
Some in the army of Israel (including David’s brother) were betting against him.
So too, it seems, there are many who are betting against us as well. Our school is small, and our impact seems tiny compared to the giant problems of the culture around us. We are part of a despised minority and are underfunded.
Well, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
An archaeologist was digging in the Negev Desert in Israel and came upon a box containing a mummy. After examining it, he called the curator of a prestigious natural history museum and told him that he had just discovered the 3,000 year-old mummy of a man who died of heart failure!
The curator replied, “Bring him in. We’ll check it out.”
A week later, the amazed curator called the archaeologist. “You were right about the mummy’s age and the cause of death. How in the world did you know?”
“Easy,” he said, “there was a piece of paper in his hand that said, ‘1,000 Shekels on Goliath’.”
Many of us are prone to have moments of discouragement during the education of our children. Like other routines, it can become a wearisome task. It’s hard work and the challenges before us can seem overwhelming. Indeed, it’s often hard to see the forest for the trees. Not every child is a motivated genius. Not every parent is passionate about the liberal arts. Not every teacher is a wunderkind. Sometimes we don’t even think about the fact that there is a forest—something bigger than this child or this week.
Do you have a vision for the work of educating children that transcends your individual child? Can you look beyond the moment and see the hundreds of lives that will be touched by your obscure labor? Why make the sacrifice—why spend the extra money and time—why do this hard work of educating our children?
Well, we do it, as R.L. Dabney put it, because it “is the most important business done on earth.” We don’t do it because it’s easy. We do it because it’s important! It’s important because our lives and our futures depend on it.
God gives encouragement through His promises to parents: “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1Jn 5:4-5). “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Gal. 6:9). “They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their descendants with them” (Isa. 65:22-23).
Goliath is before us, but Jesus our Savior is the Son of David who is in the business of slaying giants. Let’s be strong in Him!
