David in the Gap

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Michelangelo’s the David is the most perfect masterpiece of sculpture I have ever seen. The statue is housed in the Accademia Gallery in Florence, Italy. It stands over fourteen feet tall and weighs over six tons! Michelangelo worked for more than two years chiseling away at the marble to create his masterpiece. He reportedly said, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” When asked how he made the statue, Michelangelo was noted as saying, “It is easy. You just chip away the stone that doesn’t look like David.”

Isn’t that what we can do with our labels, with our titles, with our personality weaknesses? We can chip away at our imperfections until they disappear. It’s also what God does with us. He chisels away at our imperfections until we see ourselves as he sees us.

Most scholars consider that the work depicts David before his battle with Goliath. David’s face looks tense and ready for battle. His furrowed brow shows determined thought. His eyes reveal him in deep concentration as if he sees something in the distance that has his full attention. The muscles throughout his body are tight. The tendons in his neck are bulging as are the ones in his hands. His weight is on his right leg with his right placed forward ready to spring into action. He carries his sling over his left shoulder suggesting a relaxed confidence in the action that is about to take place. The contrast in his intense expression and his relaxed stance suggest David is confident and focused on his decision to fight the formidable giant, Goliath.

This frozen moment in time represents the lapse in time between David’s decision and his action. This is the pause between a stimulus and a response. David was in the GAP.

God created us with the blessing of a time lapse, albeit often only a matter of seconds, between something that confronts us and our response. David was ready in the gap. He knew what was ahead of him and what was behind him. David had many reasons not to move out of the gap. David had lived with many labels that could have prevented him from moving forward out of the gap.

David was a young shepherd and the youngest of four brothers. Do you think they ever gave him labels? When David overheard the soldiers talking about this pagan giant, he became curious that may have delayed him in his return to his brothers and the sheep. His older brother taunted David, “What are you doing hanging around here? I know about your pride and deceit. You just want to see the battle!”

Then when David told King Saul that he could fight the Philistine, Saul replied, “Don’t be ridiculous! There’s no way you can fight this Philistine and possibly win! You’re only a boy, and he’s been a man of war since his youth.”

David persisted. He didn’t let the labels stand in his way of victory. David defended himself and told of his successes fighting off animals, and finally Saul consented. David prepared for battle with a giant. This is the David we see in Michelangelo’s sculpture.

When Goliath taunted David with cursing and threats, David replied, “I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies….This is the Lord’s battle.” David triumphed over the giant with a sling, some stones, and the Lord. He didn’t let his labels, the taunting, or the threats keep him from what he was called to do. Michelangelo chiseled the marble, but God chiseled David. God helped David break free from the labels, the doubts, the cruel words, the identity that others wanted to give David. David knew what to do in the gap because he let God stand in the gap with him.

Are you ready in the gap? Are you allowing God to stand with you in the often brief seconds when you need to confront an issue, respond with love to someone, or make a decision?

Will you be faithful in your decisions? God has promised never to desert us or forsake us – even in the gap!

I have chosen to be faithful; I have determined to live by your regulations. Psalm 119:30

For He Himself has said, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you." Hebrews 13:5c