In my last post I wrote about a video my church group watched on David and Goliath. Now David and Goliath is one of the great underdog stories of all time. Here's a mighty warrior, pride of the Philistine army, felled by a stone slung by a kid. Ever since, it's been cited as proof that with God's help, one can beat the odds, no matter how much they are against you.
But let's look at this story a little closer. Were the odds really stacked that much against David? I don't think so. After all, even though he was a kid, he was not just any ordinary kid. David was a shepherd and in those days shepherding was dangerous business. When he stepped up to square off against Goliath, his resume showed that he had already killed a lion and a bear in defense of his flock. I'd say he knew what he was doing with a sling. Where he got lucky is that he took Goliath and the others by surprise. If they'd known he was going to use a sling the story might well have turned out differently. Psychologically, they weren't prepared for the death of their leader and that is why they fled.
What the Bible only hints at is that David did not develop his skill out of the blue. He had older brothers. No doubt when he was old enough to toddle, they put a sling in his chubby little hands and told him to go practice, just like in the movie "Comanche Moon" where the boy Newt was given a rope by the Texas Rangers he idolized and told to practice roping a post while they rode off against the Comanches. David wouldn't have been sent out alone with the sheep right away either. He was mentored. Finally, when his brothers were satisfied that he could take care of himself and the sheep, they would have let him go on his own.
So often this part is left out of the underdog myth, and it is what makes this myth so misleading. The myth says that you don't need to practice, you don't need to study, you don't need to do your homework, that all that is necessary is faith. This lie is at the heart of countless self-help and inspirational books. It seduces many. It seduced me.
My friend, the one with cancer, told us the other day she is writing a book about her experiences with cancer. She wants to help others who are going through this experience. It is a worthy goal, but she is doomed to failure. Why? Because the only thing she knows about is putting the words on paper. Trust me, that is the easy part. She and her husband know nothing at all about how to submit a manuscript to a publisher. They know nothing at all about how to sell the project. They know nothing at all about the publishing industry, what it is looking for. There is no one who can mentor them. When she announced this at meeting my heart sank. Oh, no, I thought. I do not want to be the one who smashes her dream, but she hasn't a prayer of getting this picked up by a major publisher and it has nothing to do with the merits of her story. It is because she doesn't understand how the system operates.
I've heard a lot about how the "mainstream" press and media discriminates against Christians, and I wonder, how much is that actually true? If my friend actually does submit her book only to receive the inevitable rejection letters, will she and the rest of the group chalk it up to "they just don't want to hear anything about God?" Much as I hate to use the killing metaphor, people like her (and myself, once) want to go out and knock off Goliath when we've yet to even brain a gopher. Then we wonder why we fail.
Afterwards I did talk with my friend and gave her what advice I could, which was, do your homework, find out how and where to submit your manuscript, and above all, find a mentor who can guide you through the process. I said I was not that one. I can help her with the writing part. But I cannot help out with the rest. I suggested that maybe she start small, with a local printer; there's a lot of excellent software out there for self-publishing, and see where it goes from there. Find a writers' group, either local or on-line, that can give you advice. But as I talked I could see my advice was falling on deaf ears. I ache for her; she's setting herself up for more heartache and that she doesn't need.
But let's look at this story a little closer. Were the odds really stacked that much against David? I don't think so. After all, even though he was a kid, he was not just any ordinary kid. David was a shepherd and in those days shepherding was dangerous business. When he stepped up to square off against Goliath, his resume showed that he had already killed a lion and a bear in defense of his flock. I'd say he knew what he was doing with a sling. Where he got lucky is that he took Goliath and the others by surprise. If they'd known he was going to use a sling the story might well have turned out differently. Psychologically, they weren't prepared for the death of their leader and that is why they fled.
What the Bible only hints at is that David did not develop his skill out of the blue. He had older brothers. No doubt when he was old enough to toddle, they put a sling in his chubby little hands and told him to go practice, just like in the movie "Comanche Moon" where the boy Newt was given a rope by the Texas Rangers he idolized and told to practice roping a post while they rode off against the Comanches. David wouldn't have been sent out alone with the sheep right away either. He was mentored. Finally, when his brothers were satisfied that he could take care of himself and the sheep, they would have let him go on his own.
So often this part is left out of the underdog myth, and it is what makes this myth so misleading. The myth says that you don't need to practice, you don't need to study, you don't need to do your homework, that all that is necessary is faith. This lie is at the heart of countless self-help and inspirational books. It seduces many. It seduced me.
My friend, the one with cancer, told us the other day she is writing a book about her experiences with cancer. She wants to help others who are going through this experience. It is a worthy goal, but she is doomed to failure. Why? Because the only thing she knows about is putting the words on paper. Trust me, that is the easy part. She and her husband know nothing at all about how to submit a manuscript to a publisher. They know nothing at all about how to sell the project. They know nothing at all about the publishing industry, what it is looking for. There is no one who can mentor them. When she announced this at meeting my heart sank. Oh, no, I thought. I do not want to be the one who smashes her dream, but she hasn't a prayer of getting this picked up by a major publisher and it has nothing to do with the merits of her story. It is because she doesn't understand how the system operates.
I've heard a lot about how the "mainstream" press and media discriminates against Christians, and I wonder, how much is that actually true? If my friend actually does submit her book only to receive the inevitable rejection letters, will she and the rest of the group chalk it up to "they just don't want to hear anything about God?" Much as I hate to use the killing metaphor, people like her (and myself, once) want to go out and knock off Goliath when we've yet to even brain a gopher. Then we wonder why we fail.
Afterwards I did talk with my friend and gave her what advice I could, which was, do your homework, find out how and where to submit your manuscript, and above all, find a mentor who can guide you through the process. I said I was not that one. I can help her with the writing part. But I cannot help out with the rest. I suggested that maybe she start small, with a local printer; there's a lot of excellent software out there for self-publishing, and see where it goes from there. Find a writers' group, either local or on-line, that can give you advice. But as I talked I could see my advice was falling on deaf ears. I ache for her; she's setting herself up for more heartache and that she doesn't need.
