The impossible task

My thought about David and Goliath today was quite simple - why did David ever think to offer to fell the giant in the first place. It is the sort of improbability which is often described in the Bible - the small and unlikely takes on the giant. It is, in fact, the stuff of Hollywood. The humble Clark Kent becomes superman or the unsuspecting victim takes on the cartel.

But we live here and now. We do often do not have the clearly demarcated lines of battle, the lines of soldiers ready, the side we wish to fight for and a giant issuing ultimatums - although actually - I suspect we could fill all of those categories with several examples from our lives currently.

What we all have is the fear of the impossible, the doubt of the improbable and the lurking thought that if God does do things with slings and rocks these days it it probably not ever going to come our way and so we had better play the game the way it is meant to be played and not be thought slightly strange for claiming trust in God over propriety.

David's suggested was preposterous, Saul's response was Divinely inspired, after all who would have said yes to such a thing and risked a kingdom? If he had said yes who would not have quickly dispatched David to history when he refused the armor. But what seemed unlikely, what seemed certain to fail, was the path that Saul took - the improbable answer to the impossible task.

What if? What if God does things this way? What is impossible and improbable are simply ways of being in the kingdom? That would mean that no task was really impossible after all and things we now bank on might become more and more unlikely as sources of stability. God is our strength - the giant fell - I wonder where we might be called to take our little tasks?