1 Samuel 17:38-40

I went to high school and wore a letterman’s jacket. I had an image and then graduated.
I went to college and joined the fraternity, played rugby, wore the image and life moved on.
I put on a suit and went into business and wore the image and the path changed
I got married and wore the image and it too, changed.
I went to seminary and into ministry and wore a robed image until I hung the robe in a closet…

I’m getting the idea here that there is a pattern – you think?

In 1 Samuel, David has a humungous challenge in front of him – a Goliath one in perspective to life. It is a life threatening challenge to him and his countrymen that could disastrously end in a blink of an eye. Saul, the king, gives David his own personal image – his armor. I look at these two situations, mine and David’s. I begin to get it – imitation can be suicide.

I was with a new acquaintance yesterday. He is in such a place in his life that as soon as he attaches to an image, he is whisked away to a completely different situation. Never enough time to try one on and wear it. Naked in a society where so many have a choice as to which one to wear today. He feels abandoned to who he could be or might have become. He and I cast images of the past aside, ignored the showers we faced between sun breaks and smiled in the warmth of the sun. We took those things around us, accepted the day and did the best we could with what we had – we formed a new image and titled it friendship.

May you be so fortunate as to be naked this week too!

Shalom, Ted