Funky Cheese

So I was recently thinking about a talk that I had heard at a retreat I went on with my church. It was about David and Goliath. The speaker brought something new into perspective that I had never thought about before: David would not have been able to defeat Goliath if he had not first defeated loins and bears in private. (1 Samuel 17:34-37) One of the things the speaker talked/joked about a lot was how David had to carry cheese to his brothers who were soldiers. (1 Samuel 17:18) Needless to say, they did not have coolers back then, and when cheese is in the heat too long it starts to smell BAD. So, in the words of the speaker, "David smelled like some funky cheese!" This little part of David smelling like funky cheese is what I want to focus on right now. Fightig the lions and bears prepared David to fight Goliath, but the funky cheese was a big part of David's journy to his brothers and to the plan God had for David. I think the funky cheese in many ways represents the discomfort of the journy David had to take to get to God's plan. God never said that the path that we have to travel to follow Him was going to be easy, infact He basically said the exact opposite: very few find it and you will be prosecuted for taking it. But God did tell us that He will never give us anything that we can not overcome through Him. God prepared David for the battle with Goliath when David had to fight the lions and bears in private. Then David had to carry this smelly, nasty, funky cheese all day to get it to his brothers. After David successfully did both these things, he was presented with Goliath and because David had obeyed God when he fought the lions and bears and when he carried the cheese, David had the faith that he could defeat Goliath with God on his side that none of his brothers or any of the other soldiers had. David had to obey God first in the private and maybe even seemingly small things first before he could obey God in the big things. My question to you now is what are your lions and bears? Maybe no one else knows about them, or maybe only a few people know about them. And finally, never give up God's plan for you just becuase you are sick and tired of carrying smelly, gross, funky cheese, or in other words: just because its hard and difficult do not right something small off as unimportant. Praying over someone else, having a one on one time with Jesus even though you are ready for bed, or going to your local church one day even though you have a sports game that you are supposed to play in may be part of the grooming that will give you the diligence that you need to be fully involved in God's plan for you. No matter what is going on in your life, God will ALWAYS give you the strength to get through it.