The Road Warrior After God’s Own Heart

The road. Those that travel for business—whether once in a while or on a consistent basis—know what I mean by the challenges of the road. You’re always moving, always on, and always adjusting to travel and schedule changes. The road is hard: from staying in shape, eating healthy, and getting any rest to keeping up with work, connecting with your family back home, and just finding a few minutes to yourself to think and catch your breath. Then you add the relentless distractions and temptations that only a road warrior knows and experiences. The evil one whispers everything from “Nobody will ever know” to “It’s the cost of doing business to win or keep the deal, so it’s okay, right?” The guilt, shame, and regret of the spiritual road warrior are all too often overwhelming and paralyzing. My faith is important to me but on any given business trip, sadly, there’s not as much evidence of that as I’d like. Most of the time, my only consistency was how inconsistent I was in taking the uninterrupted and focused time with God that I desperately needed. And of all places that I need to feel God’s presence and be an influence on others, it’s on a business trip! One of my biggest challenges on the road is not only finding time alone with God, but specifically reading something that can relate to my life as a business traveler. There’s just nothing out there that specifically addresses the faith of the business traveler, and believe me, I’ve looked high and low. I find myself having to curate, then translate content to the context of the road. I’ve longed to read something that makes me say, “that’s me” and “they get my business travel world in a Christian context!” But then I started reading about a Bible character I’ve read or heard about at church hundreds of times. This is a character I so wanted to be like in many ways—and avoid like the plague in other ways. It’s the iconic David. To begin with, the Bible devotes more space to David than to any other character. Moses and Jesus rival him for sheer number of pages—until you add Psalms (of which David wrote at least half.) Then David wins hands down. Even without the Psalms, there is more about David’s life than the lives of the other biblical characters. The story of David and Goliath strikes a powerful chord in all of us. It’s perhaps the most recognized Bible story in popular culture. And arguably the most well-known chapter in the Bible is Psalm 23, written by David. “The real David steals the pretty girl from their husband. The real David makes a mess of his family. The real David breaks the laws of both God and man. He was a complex man, perhaps one of the most complicated and conflicted leaders of all time. We may be shocked by his sins, but we are also inspired by his victories and moved by his intimacy with the God of Abraham.”iv So, why David? And what does he have to do with the life of a business traveler? Plenty. • David was a no-name. • David had a ton of downtime. • David had a horrible boss. • David was a leader. • David was overlooked, disrespected, and dealt with tragedy. • David was accused of things he didn’t do. • David was guilty of things he definitely did do—and paid dearly for it. • David was tempted in ways we can relate to on the road. • David was an absentee father. • David cared about his legacy. “No one ever takes it too hard on David. It’s probably because he’s not much different than us. We see ourselves in his story. The life of David offers so many practical lessons for those of us on the road.  He’s the only one in all of Scripture to be called “a man after God’s own heart.” Think about that statement. It isn’t “self-proclaimed” like an athlete these days shamelessly self-promoting on social media. God gave him this ultimate descriptive title—even after all David did and failed to do. We’re going to look at six specific seasons of David’s life and apply them to life on the road as a business traveler. This book will follow the stages of David, not necessarily chronologically, but thematically. 1. David as a No-Name: We all start out as a no-name, and it happens again every time we change companies. But God uses this time to prepare us in amazing ways so that we can grow and serve others for the rest of our lives.   2. David as a Warrior: From his rise to fame by killing Goliath to his developing leadership in King Saul’s army, David handles fame in amazing ways—then is tragically disowned and disappears. 3. David as a Loner: This is a confusing time in David’s life as a fugitive where he questions yet learns to rely on God. As a result, many Psalms are written. This season prepares David to lead. 4. David as a Leader: We see many sides of David’s leadership during this season, which begins slowly. Here, he often excels but also learns some very difficult lessons that affect those he leads. 5. David as a Family man: This, by far, is the darkest season of David’s life and paints our hero in a completely different light. Yet, there is so much to learn from his many failures with his closest relationships. 6. David as a Legacy: David’s ending looks nothing like his humble beginnings. Amazingly, even with all his failures, the man after God’s own heart is still in him, and he hands off his kingdom properly. There are 30 chapters in this book, designed to be read in about ten minutes or less and intended to be read only while on the road. If you have a three-day road trip, put your bookmark in at the end of the trip.