|
David may be history’s first recorded underdog. The passage doesn’t mention any oddsmakers giving a line on the outcome, but it’s safe to say Goliath would have been a prohibitive favorite. Even so, the game was over before it really got started. It’s hard not to pull for the underdog, the one likely to get curb stomped yet having the courage to step onto the field.
But this is not just a story of an underdog taking out the favorite. It is a story of a person stepping up when no one else would. It is a story of someone seeing a need, watching everyone else turn away and, without being asked, rising to the occasion. As it often does, the task itself proved less difficult than anyone imagined.
Sportsmanship aside (in today’s game, walking around with Goliath’s head would likely have earned David a hefty fine), he made short work of the giant and in the process made possible a better life for many people. Life has no shortage of Goliaths. At work, at home, at school, on a local scale or an international one, challenge appears and reappears with almost clock-like certainty. When something needs doing, especially something with long odds against success, and no one else steps forward, think about David. There are far worse things than trying and failing, chief among them wondering forever if you could have succeeded. Multitudes will always be “too busy” to make the effort. Many will always say it can’t be done. And always a few will believe it can. That belief inside you was placed there by a source of greater knowledge than any cynic.
| 
