It's about the journey....

I love the story of David.  It's got all you need to make a good story.  A protagonist. An antagonist. Love. Hate. Murder. Conniving bad guys. Tears. Friendship. Fighting. Loyalty. Action.

The guy who you root for who is against all odds.

I guess I like David because I love studying his journey.  If anyone knew the wilderness it was him. If anyone knew betrayal, pain, and loss, it was David.  He  knew menial tasks, wandering around, gypsy living, unable to go home, but unable to make a home where he was.   David, wondering when he'll finally get to do what he was called to do.  Wondering when his experience, his pain, his life will finally collide to make him the person he knew he was called to be.  I love reading about David because when you read the beginning you can taste the hope.  Then you read the middle and wonder, will David always be on the outside, will he always be on the run? Will he always be hated? Trying to hack a living out of his current circumstances? 

Then you read the end. Hope returns. He made it.  He became the king he was called to be.

But it's that middle part. It's the middle part that I relate to.  

In reading the end I've come to realize that there's no way that David could fulfill his destiny without his journey, without his character development, without the pain, without the loss, without the despair.  Sometimes I wonder if David ever laid in his cave surrounded by his outlaw men, shivering from the cold, back aching from the rocks and think about that time; that time when Samuel came to his house to anoint him. I wonder if he got mad at God; ever accused him of abandoning him.  I wonder if he ever doubted his calling, or if he knew what he was destined to be but wondered how in the world he was going to get there.  When there's only shades of grey and black around it's hard to see what lies ahead.

David's story gives me hope.  I wonder sometimes, how many wildernesses I'll have to crawl though(does anyone really run, skip, jump?).  I wonder how many times I'll have to learn the same lessons.  Sometimes I wonder if my heart can take it anymore. 

 I always hear over and over that it's about the journey, not about the destination. Truth.  But sometimes, I just want to know where this jostling bumpy ride  through canyons, over rocks, and through dust storms is going.  

And maybe my hope can be the same as David's: Despite not knowing where he was going, he knew the Lord would save him, sustain him and protect him.  

1Sam 23:14

David now stayed in the strongholds of the wilderness and in the hill country of Ziph. Saul hunted him day after day, but God didn't let Saul find him. Psalm 3 1 Lord, how many are my foes!     How many rise up against me! 2 Many are saying of me,     “God will not deliver him.”[b] 3 But you, Lord, are a shield around me,     my glory, the One who lifts my head high. 4 I call out to the Lord,     and he answers me from his holy mountain. 5 I lie down and sleep;     I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. 6 I will not fear though tens of thousands     assail me on every side.