What we consider an act of rashness and naivete, God considers brave and faithful.

In the story of David and Goliath, David wasn’t even in the battle initially. He was a young boy who was delivering food to his older brothers who were at battle. Just then, Goliath came out daring anyone to challenge him. Of course, none of the soldiers dared to challenge him because they feared for their lives. But David, a young boy who had no battle experience, thought he could take him on. And King Saul thought as I would’ve thought about David – “You are too young and too inexperienced! And you are too stupid to know it!” (Paraphrasing what Saul said to David in 1 Sam. 17:33)

But David goes to duel with Goliath and it only takes one shot at him to fell him. None of the experienced soldiers could do it. None certainly thought David could do it. But God used David’s rashness and naivete to deliver the Israelites.

Is it possible what we would consider reckless and foolish, God would consider faithful? I’m not talking about taking needless risks for thrill like skydiving or bungee jumping. But taking risks for God – such as going to the most dangerous places on earth in the name of Jesus.

Those of us who are older, we must guard ourselves from retreating to what is safe and rational. The tendency as we get older is that we operate out of our own abilities and not out of God’s abilities. We need to learn from the youth in their reckless abandon and risk-taking.

PH