Recorded in February 1993 during a two-day seminar led by Rich Mullins and Beaker at LeSEA Broadcasting Studios in South Bend, Indiana.

Let me ask you this: Do you think David wanted to cut Goliath's head off? I think he did. I think he wanted to do that more than anything in the world. What 12-year-old wouldn't love to cut off a giant's head? Read your children's literature! Every great hero cuts off a giant's head. It's just like in Walt Disney movies, the bad guy always gets eaten by a dog. In children's fantasies, the hero always cuts off a bad guy's head. And it's always a much bigger guy than the hero.

I'll bet David spent a great deal of his time [daydreaming about adventure]—he's out there watching sheep. Have you ever watched sheep? Not much to look at out there. He's supposedly watching sheep, which he is kind of keeping an eye on them, but the whole time he is in his imagination slaughtering Philistines left and right. He's a good red-blooded Hebrew. He loves to kill Philistines. He lives for that. That gives meaning and shape to his dreams. And what a drag. His dad sends his brothers out to do that that he's dreamed of doing all his life. And he's stuck at home watching sheep. What a bore. What a pathetic, tragic bore.

I can just imagine when he killed the lion it probably wasn't even chasing the sheep. He was probably just throwing a tantrum. Pretending like that lion was his dad. When he killed the bear, it probably wasn't exactly what he wanted to be doing. When David finally got to kill the giant, what did he really go out to do? Does anybody know? How humiliating. He was taking sandwiches to his brothers.

Here's a regular guy, wants to be a great soldier, wants to do great things, and his dad says, "David, come in from the sheep. I've got a job for you." And I can see David getting really excited. "He's gonna send me to fight the Philistines!" Because David doesn't know he's a little squirt. He goes in and his dad says, "David, I want you to take these sandwiches to your brothers." How humiliating! So David takes the sandwiches to his brothers.

When did David get to kill Goliath? He got to kill Goliath after he had taken the sandwiches to his brothers.

Folks, when we learn to obey, when we learn to follow, we may become able to lead. But we are not gonna be fit to lead until we are able to follow. When we learn to listen, after we have the art of listening down, we are gonna have something to say. But if we never learn to listen, we're gonna talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk and never say a word.

Everything in life is backward from the way we think it's supposed to be. That was God's mean little joke that He played on us all. But that's okay. If He wants to have quirks, He can. He's God after all. Now we can argue with Him about it, but in the end He's gonna win anyway so we may as well say, "the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."

Submitting is a drag. Submitting isn't particularly exciting. Submitting does not give us the psychological boost of having asserted ourselves, but in submitting we find greater happiness than we do in asserting ourselves.

The preceding monologue was taken from the CD and DVD scrapbook entitled Here in America. Visit our artist page for Rich Mullins to read learn more about his life, view his discography, and read some of his other monologues. Also be sure to read our review of Here in America for full details on that album. You can listen to song clips and purchase his music at Musicforce.com.

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