1 Samuel 17:11-15: in context

As Goliath's challenge rings out, Saul and all Israel are dismayed and terribly afraid. The narrative then turns to introduce David: the youngest of Jesse's eight sons, while his three eldest brothers had gone to the battle. And it notes what David was doing in those days: he went back and forth from Saul to tend his father's sheep at Bethlehem. While the army trembled, the young shepherd was faithfully keeping the flock, unknown and unnoticed, in the ordinary work of his days.

There is a quiet contrast here between the trembling army and the shepherd boy tending his sheep. While Israel was paralyzed by fear before Goliath, David was in obscurity, faithfully doing the ordinary work of keeping his father's flock. He was not yet the hero; he was a young shepherd, unnoticed, going about his daily task. But in that hidden, ordinary work, David was being prepared. It was tending sheep that had taught him to face the lion and the bear, to trust God for deliverance, to use the sling; the very skills and faith that would meet Goliath were forged in the obscurity of the shepherd's field. God was preparing his servant in the ordinary before the extraordinary. There is encouragement here about the hidden years of ordinary faithfulness. We often long for the great moment, the significant task, the visible service; and we can despise the ordinary, obscure work of our daily lives as insignificant, mere waiting for something greater. But God's way is often to prepare his servants in exactly such hidden, ordinary faithfulness. The years David spent unnoticed, tending sheep, were not wasted or insignificant; they were his training, the forging of the faith and skill that his great moment would require. He who is faithful in little, Jesus said, is faithful also in much; and the faithfulness in the little, hidden work is often God's preparation for the much. This dignifies our own ordinary, unnoticed faithfulness. The daily work that seems insignificant, the hidden faithfulness no one sees, the ordinary tasks of our present season, may be precisely where God is preparing us for what he will call us to, forging in obscurity the character and faith that a later moment will need. David tended sheep faithfully in obscurity, and there God prepared the man who would face Goliath and shepherd a nation. And our own hidden, ordinary faithfulness is not wasted; it may be, unseen, the very preparation God is working in us for what lies ahead. Be faithful in the ordinary, obscure work of today; God may be preparing you there for more than you can see.

Do I despise the ordinary, obscure work of my daily life as insignificant, longing for a greater moment while overlooking the hidden faithfulness of my present season, or can I learn from David, prepared in obscurity tending sheep for the Goliath he would face, that my ordinary faithfulness is not wasted but may be the very training God is working in me for what lies ahead?