oh, the best friend right?

Me teaching English in Nepal. It really has nothing to do with the post, just a picture of something I love. Oh and it's in a place I love too! I believe Marcus Wilson took this picture.

I have a new hero. His name is Jonathan. He’s that guy who's known for being best friends with that guy named David who happened to be the “man after God’s own heart.”

I’ll add that I think Jonathan was also a “man after God’s own heart,” it’s just that God’s plan for him was so much different than David’s. Maybe that’s why he is my new hero. Jonathan wasn’t ever destined to be in the limelight like David was. Instead, he lived his life on the edge, loving the man who was to take his fame while realizing that he was to die so that man could take his inheritance. Pretty epic if you ask me.

But what I admire so much about Jonathan is the gumption he had. I mean how many of us, knowing that someone was to take all that we were ‘created to be,’ would work to make them our best friend—and then willingly die so they could have everything? Not very many.

But Jonathan did. And he did so much more than that.

I Samuel 14:1-23 is worth reading. It will only take you about 5 minutes so just go read it.

I’m one of those people who have read this before, but the wonder and insanity of the story never stood out to me until today. Jonathan gets tired of waiting around, so with his only back-up being his trusty armor bearer, he takes off in to the Philistines camp without telling anyone—by way of climbing a cliff. His reasoning: “Perhaps the LORD will act on our behalf.”

Um, I don’t think I would have had that courage.

“Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few.”

I don’t want to spoil the story, but to live by that faith and courage is what I long for. The moral of this post is just this:

Think about your life, think about what it is that God has destined you for, and think about the gumption you might need to get it done. And then rethink how you’re living. Folks, God didn’t call us to ‘play it safe.’ The Bible isn’t filled with stories about people who worked hard to keep bad things from happening—more like the polar opposite. It’s filled with stories of people who went looking for trouble. And then found victory.

Today, I’m rethinking the way I want to live. Daring is kinda the goal now.