For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.… Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were. As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear.
- 1 Samuel 17:16, 20-24
 
For forty days the Israelites shouted the war cry and took their battle positions. For forty days the giant walked out and “shouted his usual defiance.” How stuck must they have felt?
 
This happens to us sometimes. We repeat the same behaviors over and over and over again. We get the same outcomes. We’re frustrated or miserable but don’t see a way out. The data don’t change, but our actions remain the same.
 
The Israelites probably had good reasons for repeating this pattern. None of them felt capable of defeating the giant in hand-to-hand combat. They were doing their best to just keep showing up, to just keep maintaining the status quo. And their faithful perseverance is just as remarkable as it is pitiful. We can feel impressed with them even as we feel sorry for them.
 
For forty days the Israelites shouted the war cry and took their battle positions. For forty days the giant walked out and “shouted his usual defiance.” But, on this day, David heard it. That little difference made a big difference. That little difference made all the difference.
 
When God wants to send people in a new direction, he sends along a new person. He gives that new person a new perspective. And this changes everything. This is what the Lord did with David and, ultimately, with Jesus. A new person jumping into an old, stuck situation with a new perspective (and maybe a little new life) can change history.
 
Where do you feel stuck in your life? Who are the new people God might be sending you in this season? Where might the Lord be sending you as a new person with a new perspective to help those who are stuck?