Flawed

Sunday school did me a disservice. I went to Sunday school for roughly 15 years and learned all sorts of stories from the Bible. But here's the thing - it was mostly a bunch of crap. Ok, maybe that a bit harsh. It was all whitewashed. While that makes sense for when you're young, it seems to me that at some point they should let you in on the harsh realities of the Bible. Maybe then you'd be more prepared for the harsh realities of life.

A prime example of this whitewashing is David. Both 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel are basically about David. I've always thought of David as being a good and righteous man. As a young, scrawny kid he was victorious over the mighty Goliath, who's name is now synonymous with huge, with just a slingshot. We were taught that this was possible because God had chosen him to be great. We then see that because God was with David, he was able to defeat the Amalekites, Philistines, Moabites, Arameans and Edomites, and probably a bunch of other people that I missed. God assures David that his name will be made great.

But guess what? Turns out David is just another flawed, messed up person. He saw a woman he thought was a hottie, slept with her, got her pregnant and then decided he needed to fix his "situation" by trying to get hottie's husband to come back from the war for a conjugal visit. When hottie's husband refused, David basically kills the poor guy and takes his wife for himself. He orders that Uriah be in the front line of a battle where the fighting is fiercest, pretty much sealing his fate. God is not happy with David. But God is still with him. He protects David from Saul, who tries to kill him many, many times in many, many places.

The story of David is disappointing. I thought he was a "good guy," and maybe he mostly was. But he made a pretty big mistake. I wished I would have been taught the good and the bad about this guy. We go through life learning about "heroes" - whether they are the people in the Bible or people from history. But we only learn the good things about these people. We learn Moses led his people out of Egypt but we don't learn he ticked God off enough that he didn't get to the promised land with them. We learn FDR was the architect of the New Deal but we don't learn he had a mistress, kept her near him when he was in the White House and made his wife live near her. We learn that JFK helped the US avoid a nuclear crisis but we don't learn how many girlfriends he had while he was married. We learn David defeated Goliath but we don't learn he kills a guy for practically no reason. When we only learn the good things about people, we're being conditioned to admire them. A lot of times these people aren't worthy of being admired.

I admit that I have high expectations of people. I want them to make good decisions. I want them to good to the people in their lives. I want them to be responsible and sensitive to the needs of others. And I'm almost always disappointed.

So even though I was disappointed in David when I finally learned the whole truth about him, maybe it's actually a good thing. Stories like this show us that people are flawed, even the ones that God chooses. This is a lesson I could stand to learn. Just because people make a mistake or don't behave as you'd like them to, it doesn't mean they aren't good people. If God can still love them, the least I can do is try to do the same.