A Motley Crew of Losers

I've been reading "King David: The Real Life of the Man Who Ruled Israel" by Jonathan Kirsch. David was called "a man after God's own heart" but most of David's story is one of deceit, violence, lies and lust. How do these two extremes come out of just one man?

I'm completely fascinated by this book and with the character of David. There are two different versions of David's life story in the Bible. The book of Samuel gives an "adults only" R-rated version while the book of Chronicles gives the children's Sunday School version. Which one is true? Real? Honest?

Of course they both are. It's perfectly human to present only the side we want others to see at any given moment isn't it?

I think my very favorite thing about reading this book, and about reading the Bible, is that I see so much of myself in its stories and characters. The Bible is full of such a motley crew of losers that I'm surprised that God was able to use them to get anything done.

A few examples:

Noah – He’s drunk and naked, lying in his tent; furious that his son walks in and sees him. We all know the story of the ark and the animals two by two – literally saving the world.

Abraham – He can’t keep his hands off his wife’s servant. Then he sacrifices her honor to save himself. Real nice. But God made him the father of a nation that eventually produced Jesus.

Jacob – He is one of my favorite characters. He’s wiley. He wheels and deals, conning people out of everything he wants, from inheritance to blessing to women. Yet he earned God’s favor and sired the Twelve Tribes of Israel – God’s chosen people.

Moses – He’s cranky and stubborn. He’s even sassy enough to argue with God face to face and live to tell about it.

It’s all there: Samson who is so vain it cost him his life; David who is so lusty he commits murder to have the woman he’s become obsessed with; Solomon who is the modern definition of conspicuous consumption; Jonah who paid a strange price for what was out and out racism; Thomas who makes my doubts seem honest and transparent; Paul, who was such a boring preacher that he put a guy to sleep with his sermon. The poor kid fell backwards out an upstairs window, landed on his head and died.

I could keep going, but you get the point. Every single one of these people is flawed. But every single one of them went on to be used in God's ongoing story of love and transformation.

Mistakes made in our past can seem crippling. Sometimes we might even wonder if a past event has ruined our future. But based on this list of characters, I’m convinced that God never, ever sees it that way.

If our mistakes have the unintended side effect of softening our hearts; if situations and circumstances and choices in our history can prepare us to become humble and prayerful in the future – then even mistakes are redeemed. We are just joining the ranks of God’s long, long list of characters – replete with scoundrels, scallywags and people just being people.

I look at my life, and perhaps you look at yours, and wonder how we got to the place we are. I wonder how, like David, my life can be both so complex and yet so simple; how the holy and the unholy can continue to coexist and how the ideal and the reality can be at peace with one another.

Maybe author Kirsch offers at least part of an answer as he studies King David. After all, the Bible itself tells us that David was "a man after God's own heart."