Learn to Turn
By Grant Gaines
Vincent Van Gogh is inarguably one of the greatest artist of all time. The man created 900 paintings and over 1,100 drawings and sketches. His artwork was so good, in fact, that on May 15, 1990, one of his paintings (The Portrait of Doctor Gachet) sold for $82.5 million after three minutes on an auction.
Despite all of his fame and success that we now attribute to Van Gogh, do you know how many pieces of art he sold in his lifetime? One. That’s right, just one measly piece of art.
What makes Van Gogh’s story so neat is that he continued to paint picture after picture despite the initial lack of support during his lifetime. He had that little-engine-that-could “I think I can” mentality when all the odds were stacked against him.
Van Gogh’s story is such a great illustration of how God wants our lives to play out on so many occasions. So many times we, like Van Gogh, will feel a calling from the Lord to pursue a certain dream only to be faced with closed door after closed door and doubter after doubter. It’s in those times that we have two options: either we can allow the failure to be final or we could use the rock bottom of failure as a firm foundation to start building our way towards success.
David chose to do the latter in 1 Chronicles 11:4-5 (NIV). This story is so short and so brief that you almost miss how truly significant and powerful this message really is. “David and all the Israelites marched to Jerusalem (that is, Jebus). The Jebusites who lived there said to David, ‘You will not get in here.’ Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion-which is the City of David.”
To give you some context of this story before diving into its significance, David had recently been crowned the king of Israel and one of his very first missions was to capture Jerusalem from the Jebusites. As David marched up to Jerusalem, the Jebusite king made a point to inform David and his army that they stood no chance of capturing his city.
Upon receiving this news, David had the same two choices we all have when faced with difficulty: to allow this threat to detour him from his goal or to persevere through the fear.
David’s choice to ignore this intimidating threat was summed up in one word in 1 Chronicles 11:5 (NIV)-“Nevertheless….” Despite the fear and uncertainty that must have been pulsing through David’s head at the time, he ignored the fear and fought for the fortune God had promised him. David turned from his doubters so that he could continue to pursue his passion of conquering the Promised Land that God had promised His people hundreds of years earlier.
This ability to fight through fear and failure is actually one of David’s most impressive and distinguishable qualities as a leader. If you’ll think back to 1 Samuel 17 with me you’ll remember a young David visiting his brothers and the Israelite army while a mighty Philistine warrior named Goliath taunted and mocked both the Israelites and the Lord their God. This infuriated David so much that he had a “Popeye moment” where he couldn’t stand still any more-he had to do something to defend God and his country.
So he asked the soldiers standing there what would happen if he went and fought this giant. They replied, “…The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel” (1 Samuel 17:25, NIV). Upon hearing that his younger brother was in his camp, David’s older brother Eliab mocked and scorned David for asking such a question and having such an ambitious attitude.
David could have very easily walked away at that point but 1 Samuel 17:30 (NIV) tells us that in response to Eliab’s hurtful words, David “turned away” and continued to pursue his passion.
We need to do the same when times get tough-we need to learn to turn from our doubters and continue to press into the calling that God has given us. Because as you are probably well aware of, there will be many times in our own lives when we, like Van Gogh and like David, have a long list of naysayers and doubters standing between us and our dreams.
We must remember that the kingdom of heaven is not for the timid who sit around and twiddle their thumbs but rather for the go-getters who walk in faith rather than in fear. We must remember also that God’s promises are not always delivered to us immediately but rather after we get ourselves out of His way so that there can be no possible way that we can receive any glory for what He has done for us.
A lot of God’s promises are waiting for you right now behind the door of doubt and failure. Are you willing to fight through the fear to take hold of those promises?
“You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.”
-Hebrews 10:36 (NIV)
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©Grant Gaines 2013
