Part 1
I am reminded of the Bible story of David and Goliath many years back. The story is of a young shepherd boy who came from an ordinary family. He was so accustomed to his routine – I suppose he would wake up in the morning, take a quick breakfast, possibly pack some that would serve as his lunch. The routine was normal for him and he saw nothing unusual about his life. Everyone in his family went about their lives too as ordinarily as they would.
I want to imagine that in the evenings on returning the animals home, he probably met his older brothers, neighbours, experts on security in the media houses and perhaps politicians all talking of an imminent attack and how they needed to develop a strategy to attack. What worried them most was one guy known as Goliath – a giant of a man known to topple down enemies. “Who do we think we are, if his success rate has been almost 100%?” The king and even the soldiers were all afraid of him that they almost surrendered to the attackers because they knew not how to deal with the giant Goliath. David, a shepherd boy knew for a fact, he could not let the enemies destabilize his routine. He watched to see who would volunteer but no one seemed to be ready to face the attacker.
Short and narrow of the story, David came out and said he was ready to face the giant. Imagine the look on the faces of the people when they saw David. His brothers even tried to pull him away – perhaps for fear of humiliating the family or even losing their own young brother. We know that at the end of the story the Giant is killed instantly using stones from David’s sling. What’s my point in this story? I know David must have heard and seen the worry in the faces of his people; Concern over what would happen to them. He knew he had to challenge himself using the same skills he had used in the past to fight bears, lions and animals that tried to attack the cattle. He practiced, prepared and found the best stones – we are told he had five smooth stones in his bag.
This story comes alive today – our Goliath, the giant is Covid-19. It has killed thousands of people, destroyed economies almost to their knees. As David saw – we MUST build some resilience and be ready to face this giant. We have our five smooth stones that we need to smoothen to go to the battle field – social distancing, wearing face masks, sanitizing our hands regularly, cleaning our surfaces and eating a healthy meal. Imagine what David saw if he let Goliath and their army win? They would lose their freedom, dignity and will.
We must bounce back and rebuild our lives!
Author:
Esther Nderitu-Mwangi is the Managing Consultant at Executive Edge Consulting