11.22.2013 LEAP OVER A WALL by eugene h. PETERSON -God dominated imagination

reflections on the life of david

acquiring a God dominated imagination

...when david showed up at ephesdammim and joined saul's encampment in the valley of elah,
goliath dominated the scene.
the huge giant..twirling his 25 pound spear with the careless ease of a cheerleader twirling her baton
-was completely intimidating.
his taunts across the valley, easing and provoking the israelites,
each day made each man a little more of a coward.
goliath -his size, his brutality, his cruelty-centered the world.
goliath was the polestar around which everyone took his bearings.

the same debased imagination that treated goliath as important treated david as insignificant.
the men who were in awe of goliath were contemptuous of david.
arriving with 10 loaves of bread and 10 bricks of cheese for his brothers in the army,
david was treated by them with withering scorn.
their imaginations were so ruined by goliath-watching
that they were incapable of seeing and accepting a simple act of friendship.

the moment we permit evil to control our imaginations,
dictate the way we think,
and shape our responses,
we at the same time become incapable of seeing the good and the true and the beautiful.

but david entered the valley of elah with a God dominated, not a goliath dominated, imagination.
he was incredulous that everyone was cowering before this infidel giant.

(note: 10 of 'em should have rushed 'em from all sides and got rid of 'em quick the first time
he opened his mouth! same thing is true of any one of us if threatened by something too big
to deal with alone...tell 9 praying brothers about it quick and go to ask-seek-knock united prayer
until it's old news. if one is so unfortunate to not have other such brothers, ask-seek-knock fasting until the Omnipotent slices off it's head!)

weren't these men enlisted in the army of the living God?
God was the reality with which david had to do;
giants didn't figure largely in david's understanding of the world, the real world.

in the bethlehem hills and meadows, tending his father's sheep,
david was immersed in the largeness and immediacy of God.
he had experienced God's strength in protecting the sheep
in his fights with lions and bears.
he had practiced the presence of God so thoroughly
that God's word, which he couldn't literally hear,
was far more real to him than the lion's roar, which he could hear.
he had worshiped the majesty of God so continuously that God's love,
which he couldn't see,
was far more real to him than the bear's ferocity, which he could see.
his praying and singing,
his meditation and adoration
had shaped an imagination in him that set each seep and lamb, bear and lion
into something large and vast and robust: God.

his imagination was so thoroughly God-dominated
that he COULDN'T BELIEVE what he was seeing and hearing
when he walked into ephesdammim-goliath terror, goliath phobia.
it was an epidemic worse than cholera,
everyone down with golath sickness,
a terrible disease of spirit that had saul and his entire army incapacitated.