One Philistine At A Time

Samson was a really strong guy. He did tons of things that were pretty nuts. However, I’m going to talk about one in particular. The story where he kills 1,000 men.

Ok, so here’s how the Bible tells the story (taken from Bible Gateway)

Judges 15:14-16 New Living Translation (NLT)

¹⁴ As Samson arrived at Lehi, the Philistines came shouting in triumph. But the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon Samson, and he snapped the ropes on his arms as if they were burnt strands of flax, and they fell from his wrists. ¹⁵ Then he found the jawbone of a recently killed donkey. He picked it up and killed 1,000 Philistines with it. ¹⁶ Then Samson said,

“With the jawbone of a donkey,
    I’ve piled them in heaps!
With the jawbone of a donkey,
    I’ve killed a thousand men!”

****

Can I just say that is absolutely CRAZY!? 1,000 people! And they weren’t just regular civilians, they were warriors. Trained for combat.

A few weeks ago my dad made a very good point, and he’s honestly the inspiration for this post. He was telling me his thoughts on this subject, and then he explained how it relates to writing — and everything, really. So I wanted to share this with you because it inspired me!

So Samson was strong, right? But even if a guy that strong was attacked by a mob of women, children, and elders, he probably wouldn’t be able to move. (I like imagining a guy laying on the ground with tons of kids giggling and tackling him all at once and Samson just pinned on the ground haha)

Anyway, my dad’s point was that if Samson was attacked by 1,000 men all at the same time, he’d probably have a rough time of it. (I don’t at all doubt that God was helping him and it is possible, but hear me out.)

What if he didn’t just take them all down at once, but one at a time? One Philistine at a time. That seems a little more manageable, right?

We tend to focus too much on the job as a whole, and it gets overwhelming.

“I’ll never be able to finish building that house.”
“Learning to play that song will take FOREVER!”
“I could never write a whole book.”

Listen, you can’t build a house in a week.
You can’t learn a whole new song right away.
You don’t just sit down at your computer and write a whole book.

You do it one brick, one note, one word at a time. You got this! Annnd, Jesus is fighting for you! Ask him to help you get those words out on the paper. He will! If you need inspiration, take a step away, go for a walk, drink some coffee.

Make sure to look at the whole picture, but you don’t need to be defeated just by looking ahead. Yes, it’s big and a lot of work.

But do it one at a time.