BEING HUMAN

#BeingHuman [in English]. My Sunday sermon on June 29, 2025, on the leadership lessons I learn from David’s trust in God amidst collective trauma… Everything else that we learn about our leadership in Ukraine is in between the lines… [to be continued with p. 2]

David and his six hundred soldiers return to find nothing: their city of Ziklag was not merely destroyed but erased. This was not military defeat; this was the annihilation of meaning itself. In 1 Samuel 30:1-6, I see a most devastating portrait of collective loss. Yet, within this narrative of absolute desolation, I have found a truth about the nature of Hope when our human resources have been exhausted and Divine intervention appears absent.

“Now it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great; they did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way.” (1 Sam 30:1-2, NKJV)

Ziklag was more than David’s military headquarters. For him, it was a picture of Israel’s future kingdom, where refugees and outcasts had found a sense of belonging, where families of 600 soldiers had been rebuilt, and where Hope had taken concrete form in homes and relationships. The Amalekite raid represents the purposeful, systematic destruction of the social fabric itself. Not random violence, but calculated obliteration of everything that makes the Community of Hope possible.

David, already anointed as Israel’s future king, discovers that Divine calling provides no immunity from the brutal realities of a fallen world. The burning of Ziklag reveals the provisional nature of human institutions and the fragility of Hope divorced from transcendent anchorage. The loss of wives and children meant the loss of future generations and the collapse of economic systems. These men did not lose possessions; they lost their reasons for living.

This story reveals for me the vulnerability of human settlement, regardless of Divine mandate, prophetic promise, and the Mission that has not changed. The ancient Amalekite strategy against Ziklag finds its contemporary echo in Ukraine, where the Community of Hope and Christian leaders face identical patterns of systematic destruction. The nightly targeting of civilian infrastructure, daily terroristic attacks, the forced displacement of people, and the weaponization of suffering itself – all mirror the calculated obliteration that David’s community experienced. Ukrainian cities and villages reduced to rubble, families torn apart, the infrastructure of everyday life methodically destroyed by Russians… The pattern remains unchanged across millennia.

“So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep.” (1 Sam 30:3-4, NKJV)

This story refuses to romanticize grief or rush toward resolution. Instead, it presents the raw, embodied reality of trauma: weeping “until they had no more power to weep.” This is grief as physical exhaustion… as the complete depletion of emotional resources… as the point where even the expression of pain becomes impossible…

Personal grief can be processed within supportive community structures, but collective grief – where the entire community has lost everything simultaneously – creates a totally different form of devastation. In this community, there are no unaffected observers to provide perspective, no stable foundations from which to begin rebuilding, and no shared “narrative of meaning” that has survived intact.

David faces not merely his own grief but the grief of his followers, and their grief becomes directed toward him. The story reveals how even faithful leadership can shift from being seen as protective to being blamed as responsible. In moments of total loss, communities seek someone to hold accountable among them. Sometimes, leaders of good will, faithful to the Mission of God, become lightning rods for collective rage and despair… And no, it is not about protecting so-called dehumanized and weaponized “traditional Christian values.”

This pattern emerges not rarely in Christian communities responding to massive trauma – whether from natural disasters, “armed conflicts,” or social collapse. The search for blame “among us,” the need to find human agency “among us” even in seemingly random devastation, the way grief transforms into rage when its object is absent “among us.”

“Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters.” (1 Sam 30:6a, NKJV)

Here, I encounter one of the most psychologically and emotionally profound moments in the entire story. The men who had followed David through years of exile, who had found in him a center of faithfulness, Hope, and Mission, now turn on him in their pain. This is not about political betrayal; it is about the dissolution of human solidarity itself under the pressure of ultimate collective loss.

The bonds of faithfulness and mutual commitment dissolve when physical personal survival itself is threatened. These men had chosen David over Saul, had committed themselves to his vision of Israel’s future and “vital sustainability,” and had created with him an alternative Community of Hope in the wilderness. Yet when their personal and collective loss became total, their communal commitments collapsed. Their bitterness was directed not merely at circumstances and their enemies but at the faithful leader who had promised them a future that now seemed impossible.

The dynamics of blame in the face of overwhelming collective loss reveal how quickly “democratic solidarity” can dissolve into mob violence when citizens lose faith in their shared future. The search for human agency, the way grief transforms into rage seeking a human target “among us,” and the dissolution of political bonds under ultimate collective pressure – these patterns repeat across cultures and centuries for thousands of years already…

People under extreme stress can turn against their own leadership (this is not about political liars and power-hungry leaders who deceive their own people for their own sake or for the sake of “protecting their traditional values”) even when that leadership bears no direct responsibility for their suffering. The psychology of scapegoating emerges when communities are unable to identify the true source of their pain. The faithful-to-the-Lord leader David becomes the focal point for rage that has now nowhere else to go.

“But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” (1 Sam 30:6b, NKJV)

Amid total loss, facing the collapse of human solidarity and the threat of violence from his own followers, David makes a choice that defies both psychological and political logic. Rather than attempting to manage the “crisis” through human resources only – whether by appeasing his men, seeking revenge, or fleeing the “situation” – he turns to the Lord for strength. This is not merely personal spiritual discipline; it is a social and political act of profound significance under current circumstances.

The phrase “strengthened himself in the Lord” suggests not passive resignation and waiting but active appropriation of Divine spiritual and emotional resources. In the face of circumstances that have exhausted human strength, David chooses to draw upon the strength that transcends human capacity. This choice represents a fundamental rejection of the assumption that leadership in the Mission of God must rely solely on human wisdom, human resources, and human loyalty, especially during ongoing “armed conflicts.”

David’s response models missional leadership that acknowledges the limits of human agency while simultaneously taking responsibility for action, although within those limits. He does not blame God for the tragedy (although he has so many questions for Him), nor does he claim that his faith provides easy and straightforward answers to complex problems (“everything will be fine, men, do not worry”). Instead, he demonstrates how trust in the Lord can provide a foundation for courageous action, even when outcomes still remain uncertain.

David’s choice to seek strength in the Lord does not resolve the immediate “crisis” – his family is still gone, his city is still destroyed, and his men and followers are still bitter. But it provides the foundation for moving forward and toward “vital sustainability” despite the absence of a visible and apparent resolution. This Hope is not a positivistic, “evangelical optimism” about outcomes but rather a trust in God’s faithfulness that transcends the current tragic circumstances.

* * *

So what? The “Ziklag crisis” reveals that authentic Hope in the Lord transcends both Saul’s power-hungry self-reliance and contemporary, even “trauma-healing-for-my-sake” individualism. David’s choice to strengthen himself in the Lord was not a retreat into personal spiritual comfort but rather preparation for missional action. His hope immediately transformed into seeking God’s will to continue caring for his people here and now and pursuing the Divine mandate for Israel, even when circumstances remained unchanged…

This Hope possesses a concrete dimension that compels action despite unresolved realities. The war continues, families remain missing, grief and pain persist, and 200 out of 600 men prove too weary to move forward… Yet David’s leadership, anchored in Divine faithfulness rather than in human security and logic alone, demonstrates that the Mission of God advances precisely in, through, and beyond such limitations. Hope grounded in God’s character enables direct engagement with suffering, pain, and grief rather than escape from them.

From David, I learn that divine strengthening leads me not to passively wait for the end of the ongoing full-scale Russian war but to actively pursue God’s purposes in and through tragic circumstances and personal losses. His Hope for me is not optimism about outcomes but trust that Divine faithfulness provides sufficient resources for continuing the Mission despite incomplete, partial, or even missing (here and now) restoration. The 400 who could move forward carried the same grief as the 200 who stayed behind but found in Divine strength the capacity to act within their limitations… so far as arriving at the river, they were no longer able to cross.

This story resonates with me on a deeply personal level, holding urgent relevance for contemporary leadership. Collective trauma creates crises of meaning that individual personal resources cannot resolve, yet these crises become occasions for discovering that Divine resources are most accessible when our human capacity is exhausted.

Leadership that survives ultimate testing draws its foundation not from circumstances, popular support, or strategic success but from participation in the Mission of God through Divine faithfulness.

Friends and fellow leaders in the West (sorry for being so specific), are you prepared for the dissolution of the political and military securities upon which your leadership may currently depend? Will your Hope survive the collapse of institutional stability, popular support, and political-strategic certainty?

Friends and fellow leaders in Ukraine, does our Hope in the Lord translate into the continued pursuit of God’s Mission for our people, or does it remain trapped in longing for a quick resolution? When human resources prove insufficient for us and our circumstances remain unchanged for more than three years of the ongoing full-scale Russian war, what does it mean to strengthen ourselves in the Lord for the sake of those who cannot move forward themselves?

The “Ziklag crisis” confronts both peacetime and wartime leadership with profound questions. Human communities remain vulnerable to political or military forces beyond their control, and Hope that depends solely on human resources will always fail when tested by total collective loss… Yet Communities of Hope grounded in Divine resources can survive such testing while still engaging fully with the reality of suffering, pain, grief, and incomplete resolution.

David’s example reveals Hope that enables action, not because it guarantees success, but because it provides meaning that transcends both success and failure alike. Divine purposes work through tragic circumstances rather than despite them, offering resources for the Mission that continue when “traditional values” and foundations collapse… Peace be with you and keep your children away from war, Taras D (Ukraine). 1222nd day of the full-scale Russian aggression toward Ukraine..