Daily Lesson for July 13, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Samuel chapter 17 verses 4 through 7:

4And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 5He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armoured with a coat of mail; the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. 6He had greaves of bronze on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. 7The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron; and his shield-bearer went before him. 

A couple years back I read a fascinating book by Malcolm Gladwell titled "David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants" which basically turned the whole David and Goliath story around by wondering if the giant's great panoply of armament might not have been an advantage but actually a disadvantage -- the source of his downfall. The whole idea was that maybe Goliath was too big and too well armed to be of any use in an actual battle -- especially a battle against someone as agile as David. Something to think on. 

It's also something to think on for ourselves. Sometimes our great strengths in our lives end up actually being our weaknesses -- the source of our downfall. 

Another book. About the same time "David and Goliath" came out, business thinkers Rob Kaiser and Bob Kaplan published another book titled "Fear Your Strengths". Their premise is that in recent years the whole management coaching world has overly focused on building on strengths, to a point where leaders have been taught to over-rely on them. Strong-minded and decisive leaders have been given the green light to be overly unilateral and even domineering while on the flip side nurturing leaders have learned the poor form of "too much" enabling.  The point of the book was to be self-aware and understand how strengths can sometimes become liabilities.  As one business executive put it, "I don’t have to give up my fastball; I just don’t have to throw it all the time!"

Our strengths are God-given and wonderful. But there is a shadow-side to them. They have their Achilles Heel. Beware.