Dying for a Sheep
“After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’
Acts 13: 22
A man after God’s own heart. Wow. This is what is written in the scriptures about who David was. What is possibly more perplexing than the words used to describe David are the words they didn’t used to describe him. David isn’t painted here as an authoritative, influential leader that writes self-help books or tours around his country hosting encouraging, feel-good conferences. Nor does it say he is chasing after God’s calling, mission or power. Yet solely after His heart, and everything else resulted because of that.
Recently, I have found myself in a position, desiring that same title. “I want to be a woman after God’s own heart,” I thought to myself, without counting the cost that those few words bare. David was a faithful, successful leader. A spiritual giant if you will. Desire and pride pulse through me as I read those words. “That will be me,” I thought before I was even able to understand the journey which that road leads you one. A journey that can place you not in riches and success, but in danger and solitude.
“David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”
33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”
34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
1 Samuel 17: 32-37
A single sheep is what David would have died for. How can this be?! Couldn’t David achieve so much more for the Kingdom of God than a lousy sheep. This story almost frustrates me because why on earth would David put his life at stake for a sheep. What does that sheep have to offer? Nothing.
But this is exactly what sets David apart. David would have died for his sheep. The very thing he loves and has been entrusted with. Not because he had an exclusive gift or specific calling, but his heart reflected the Lord’s. Leadership takes no giftings, authority or being an exceptional public speaker, but dying for your sheep.
How many of us christians claim that we want to look like Christ, but are paralyzed in fear when one of our sheep is in the mouth of a bear? What matters more, the life of a sheep or our own? We sing worship songs about walking on water but then hold to the earthly safety promised in staying in the boat. How many times do we convince ourselves that our heart is after the Lord’s heart when it isn’t reflected in our lives? We begin to see that the cost of spiritual leadership is a high price to pay. In fact, it could just cost you everything.
