This may be the strangest David and Goliath story you have ever heard!

You know what I’m talking about. Giant, seemingly unbeatable “oppressor” taken on by a small, harmless looking champion. Everyone knows the story, even the most atheist of my friends. It’s a good thing too, considering that it’s been used to advertise insurance, cars, and lately Dunkin’ Donuts turbo shots.

My story involves a bird, which I have never found to be the brightest of creatures. Evolutionists claim dinosaurs were more birds than reptiles, I would note neither compare well to mammals. Call me crazy, but I always root for the same species as me. Sure, sure, the Brockelmans had an amazing cockatiel that could whistle the entire Andy Griffith shows theme music. I had one that could say “pretty bird, pretty bird” right before she bit you. Even so, they’re not the most clever of God’s creatures.

I would note that this story is more often misused than it is fairly compared to. Consider that Goliath was portrayed as cruel, his people harsh rulers, unjust and barbaric. Every advantage is given to him in the contest, he being from a society of “fighters” who violently took what they wanted. What could contrast more sharply than a young shepherd boy (pretty boy), who loved music (sissy!), quiet words of worship (not self-reliant!), the runt of the litter (baby of the family)? But when a person with the government and the judicial system, along with public opinion and greedy lawyers, sues some big corporation for millions, the papers portray it as if it were this one “heroic” person taking on the uncaring and money backed company and shockingly winning. There is nothing shocking about that to me.

Nor is it all that heroic. The person who takes on a company like this isn’t going to lose anything, they can only win. If not money, then sympathy or fame or whatever. David was risking his life. I wonder if folks would take on these big companies if they were told if they lost they had to forfeit everything they had for the rest of their lives. Would they still be “heroic”? David did the right thing because it was the right thing to do! While the bible records his great confidence in God, I don’t believe he was unafraid entirely. He was not an insane person, but one who was going to stand up for God regardless of the outcome. When we invite a friend to a gospel meeting, we are probably afraid of rejection. We might even be worried about harming a friendship. But we go ahead and do it anyway, because we know it’s the right thing to do. This crazy idea that hero’s are fearless sounds wonderful; but I’m just glad in reality they hold that fear back and get the job done.

Occasionally I hear wanna-be-hippy kids talk about how they stood up to their parents, and I hear adults praise them for their strength of character in the face of oppression. Oh really? How hard is it to give in to selfish “I want I want” thinking and tell your parents you don’t want to obey them? The hero of that story is the parent, who shows patience and great restraint in not killing their offspring. I suppose Korah showed his “strength of character” when he tried to tell Moses and God what they could do with all those rules they were “forcing” on him. Question authority! Yeah, being swallowed up by the ground sure does teach a great lesson in character.

But I digress just a bit, back to my David and Goliath story. Last Sunday, when Deniese and I drove home between services we found a male turkey in our side yard. Now, we’ve been seeing several mom turkeys with brood in tow this last week, which look exactly like full grown turkeys except for their being the size of a pigeon. But this was a male one (he was wearing a tie) and he was gobbling at the top of his lungs – at my blue 1995 Nissan pickup truck of death. Yes, screeching so loud his body shook violently, he pecked and scratched at my truck passionately. We watched for quite a few minutes before he managed to pluck and rip off a rusty piece of chrome from the fender. Satisfied he had vanquished the “giant” he headed off into the woods, gobbling his triumph.

I don’t know who started the fight (but I think it was the bird.) It just goes to show we can go around starting fights with things in our lives that can’t fight back and pretend we are brave or we can save our energy for real threats. If we praise God and ourselves at being steadfast when things look good, only to question him and run when the thing we’re dealing with is free to fight back, sooner or later someone is going to have us for lunch. Probably around late November.

Randy