No Such Thing as a Nobody
September 16, 2024
We’ve all heard the David and Goliath story, how many times? But wait … before you tune out, let me share the one line in the story that recently got my radar buzzing.
He (David) chose five smooth stones from the stream and put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag.
Five smooth stones. Yet he only needed one stone to bring Goliath down.
This resonated so strongly with me because in sharing and writing my story I’ve been referring to Five touchstones that helped me heal from abuse (my giant). I googled the Biblical significance of five and discovered five, or hey in Hebrew, means grace or favor.
My Five Fighting Stones to Healing:
Following Jesus
Grieving and Forgiving
Discovering Dormant Passions
Healing in Community
Embracing the Scars
Five stones, yet it was “one stone,” the grace of Jesus, that caused all the other healing favors to flow into my life.
It’s evident in David’s story that, before encountering Goliath, even before his story hit the pages of the Bible, he had cultivated a strong relationship with God. David had seen the Lord’s faithfulness and protection through his work as a shepherd.
"The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will delivery me
from the hand of this Philistine (giant).”
1Samuel 17:37
David understood and trusted where his power came from. The power to do courageous and impossible things.
For the battle is the Lord’s and he will give all of you into our hands.
These days, I find myself up against a new giant. Being faithful to God’s call to put my story out in the world, even publish it if that’s part of His plan. It’s challenging.
But like David, I’ve been out in the fields before this, witnessing God’s strength and faithfulness again and again. Not only through my healing, but through my journey with Mend on the Move.
God was on my side through those battles.
And so, I find courage to gather my stones again.
Just like the scrappy shepherd boy who was plucked from tending sheep in a field – a nobody – to one day becoming King of Israel and “a man after God’s own heart”.
Also inspiring is the Samaritan woman who encountered Jesus at the well in John 4. An outcast – a nobody according to her community, because she had been divorced so many times, a true disgrace during that culture and time. But Jesus sees her as a somebody.
Somebody deserving of respect.
Somebody who would impact her whole community. Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony.
I felt like a nobody, too. A silent victim of abuse, originally from a small village on the remote island of Newfoundland, Canada, who somehow ended up in Michigan, totally clueless to my own pain and brokenness.
Until I encountered Jesus. He healed my wounded soul, filled it with passion and purpose and then, just like David, I was a somebody God can use in this world.
Here’s the thing. To God, there’s no such thing as a nobody. That’s a word we hear from
ourselves and our society. We are all somebodies in the Lord’s eyes. He particularly likes to lift the underdogs because they show the world that the least likely, the lowly and helpless, the marginalized, are so important to Him.
Everyone in His Kingdom matters and has a purpose.
David and the Samaritan woman. Seemingly nobodies, yet so esteemed by God that their
humble stories remain with us thousands of years later through His Holy Word.
Are you facing a giant today? A giant that says, “you’re a nobody?”
Remember, my friend, even before you gather or throw a stone, you are already a
special somebody.
An encounter with Jesus will confirm it.