Dual Movements...

What conditions you on the inside?

Going through the Word for Today of Saturday May 9 and I read the interesting description of David's past compared with his future. He was the shepherd who became the king. What struck me was the way his chances of achieving this feat was described: "slim to none" - shepherds in those days were described as so low in the cadre of society that they couldn't testify in court, their words were considered unreliable and sometimes even incoherent. And this is not surprising. Imagine a single individual in a desert or field among only animals, muttering to himself, noticing things, finding joy or amusement in things gradually divergent from what can be deemed normal. It's like a sailor who has been alone at sea for ages - they begin to see things that don't exist, speak to themselves with jerky tones and further separate themselves from their humanity. How come David was different?

My only answer is regarding the movements within him. His movements were not towards nature or in response to his aloneness. His internal movements were anchored on His creator. He did not allow external pressures or influences to torture or otherwise manipulate his internal construct, and he thrived and even exceled in his solitude. His aloneness represented a secret place, aligned and synchronised with the divine, so much so that the environment or situation that could have ruptured his intelligence and coherence even further refined it - so that he could actually praise God and sing hymns to God about the beauty of His creation. This means one thing. If the internal configuration is right, the external will always submit. No wonder God described him as a man after His own heart. No wonder he was able to cross the bridge from shepherd to king almost literally by one statement "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine...?". You could almost sense God rubbing His hands together in anticipation at that statement - His boy was ready. The human time bomb called David had ticked down its final few seconds.

What conditions me on the inside? There is so much wrong and negative influences out there and everywhere. But they are created, in fact designed and under the control of my own Creator. These influences are not supposed to depress or frustrate me, rather they are supposed to refine me. They are the friction and heat that remove the dross from my silver, so that the Master can see His own reflection in me when he stoops to examine. They are the conditions that produce fruit in me so that I can be differentiated from the tares. There must be dual movements concerning me from here on: my inside must shine brighter and brighter despite the permeation of darkness around me. That is how come the nations will see my light (our light) and say to themselves "come, let us go up to the house of the Lord...".

Selah.