Faithful in the Field

Just five more months and I’ll be walking across the stage to graduate! The big moment will finally be here, and I won’t have to do any more studying or worrying about finals week or pulling an all-nighter. I’ll have finally made it!

But then what?...

What if I graduate just to get stuck at a job I don’t like, and where I don’t feel I’m making a difference in the world? What if I know I could be doing something more, but don’t know how to get there? What if I don’t fulfill my potential?

In 1 Samuel 16, David is facing a similar situation. He is out in the fields, probably playing a harp to ease the boredom of being alone with hundreds of sheep day after day. His brothers are all bigger, older, and better looking than he is, out fighting in the war, but here he is, watching sheep. Surely he knows there is something more for his life….but sometimes he wonders. Maybe he was just meant to watch sheep.

Then the day comes where he sees someone approaching, beckoning him to come into the house where the prophet Samuel is waiting. He feels a twinge of nerves and excitement as he enters the house. As his brothers watch, Samuel then anoints him the future king of Israel. As the anointing oil drips off his head and runs onto his shoulders and his brothers are probably wondering if the heat got to Samuel for anointing their little brother, David begins to realize he was destined for more than a field of sheep. Some day he’ll be king…

The next morning David wakes up and remembers what happened the day before. The smell of anointing oil has faded, and David heads to the field for another day of watching sheep. Day after day passes, and David is still watching sheep. Is this right? Did Samuel anoint David the next king for him to just sit in the fields? Surely David should be fighting in the war and making himself a hero! How else will he become king? But yet he finds himself in a field, not with a scepter, but with a staff.

If you know the story of David, you know he eventually became king. You know he went to play for Saul in the palace, and how he killed Goliath and became Israel’s hero. How did he get there? Did he plot and scheme his way to the throne, knowing he would succeed because God had promised? Did he worry constantly that he wasn’t doing the necessary actions to become king?

No. He knew that the same God who sent Samuel to call him from the field and anoint him king still knew where he was. He became king because he was faithful where God placed him. He did the best he could at what he was given. He learned to play the harp so well while watching sheep that he was asked to play in the palace. He also killed a lion and a bear without weapons to defend his sheep, preparation for when he would later kill a giant to defend his God.

Maybe we don’t understand why we are where we are, or how the tools in our hands could possibly be used to take us where God has called us. We even wonder sometimes whether we were meant to do more, or if we were just imagining.

But just like David, even if we have to “go back to the field” the next morning, let’s be faithful. Let us do our best even when we don’t understand why. He hasn’t forgotten where we are. If we just remain faithful where God has placed us, do the best we can at what He has given us to do, and keep believing, then He’ll be able to promote us beyond what we could ever imagine.

Just keep practicing that harp!