We are so quick to discount our abilities and our leadership. We are familiar with our own shortcomings, familiar with our past. We can tend to focus on our mistakes and hold those up as proof to God that God selected the wrong person to lead. And yet, in every generation, God calls leaders to step out of the shadow of their past and lead with courage. This is what David did. A promising youth who made some terrible mistakes as a man returned to God and became the greatest king of Israel. He was known as a friend of God, the anointed leader from whom the promised Messiah would eventually come. David wasn’t perfect. He was flawed and yet he yielded to God’s work in his life to the very end.
At the end of his life, the end of a long tenure, David stepped down from power and empowered his son – the son of Bathsheba – the one with whom David committed one of his greatest sins. He empowered Solomon – who rose to even greater heights than David. Solomon the wise king was empowered by King David, the friend of God, to build for God a home on earth, the temple. Part of that temple remains today (the wailing wall in Jerusalem).
Can you imagine having a legacy like that? And indeed from David and Solomon comes Jesus the very one who sets us free from all those things we lift up as reasons we should not lead. Jesus sets us free from our sins and stands on our behalf. What will your legacy be? Who are you empowering to lead for you and continue the work God has called you to?