UlTImATE SUccESS GUIdEyou can imagine, this path did not look very promising for David. He
spent many days and nights in the wilderness looking after his flock and
playing the harp, as he had plenty of free time on his hands.
He became so skilled at playing the harp that he was called by the
prophet Samuel to play for the king of Israel, Saul, to help bring peace
to Saul in a time of war. The war was between the Philistines and Isra-
elites, and Goliath, a Philistine, stepped out of the Philistine camp and
announced that whoever took him down would join the two warring
factions and become their leader. David, who had earned King Saul’s
favor after bringing him peace with music from his harp, asked if he
could be the one to fight Goliath. David drew from his past experiences
in the fields, where he had used his slingshot to kill predators such as
lions and bears in order to protect his sheep. Little did he know God
would use those skills and experiences to bless him down the road. Saul
finally agreed and let David face the great giant Goliath with no more
than the tools he used everyday—a stone and a slingshot. David killed
Goliath with one shot, and, as a result, David saved his country from the
Philistines and would eventually become king of Israel.
The story of David and Goliath has long been a favorite of mine because
of the message it conveys: every step of a journey has value and pre-
pares you for the next step. No experience is without value; therefore,
it benefits you to do the very best at the job you have at the present. Ex-
ceed expectations, because you have no way of knowing what you will
be asked to do next. David did things in his everyday, natural, life that
brought to him blessings of supernatural proportions.
Success, like David’s, requires commitment. The success that I have
achieved in my career certainly did not come to me by luck or over-
night. At various stages of my career, I’ve remembered this story and
asked myself, “What can I do in the natural that will help bring about
supernatural blessings in my life like David had?” The number of things
that we experience—those things we do in the natural world—correlate
directly to the way in which we manage the gifts we have been given.
One of my favorite verses in the Bible is “The horse is made ready for the
day of battle, but the victory rests with the Lord.” Proverbs 21:31. This il-
lustrates the great law of the universe--cause and effect. I believe that just
like David in the Bible, God entrusts each of us with certain gifts: time,