The Self-Reliant King (1 Samuel 26:6-12)

“So I’ll cherish the old rugged Cross
‘Til my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged Cross
And exchange it some day for a crown.”

—George Bennard

Enter the Wilderness (1 Samuel 23)

Wilderness (noun)

1a - (1): a tract or region uncultivated and uninhabited by human beings
(2): an area essentially undisturbed by human activity together with its naturally developed life community
b: an empty or pathless area or region: “in remote wildernesses of space groups of nebulae are found” — G. W. Gray 1960
c: a part of a garden devoted to wild growth

2 obsolete: wild or uncultivated state

— Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Lament (1 Samuel 22)

“When men say that they miss combat, it’s not that they actually miss getting shot at—you’d have to be deranged—it’s that they miss being in a world where everything is important and nothing is taken for granted.” — Sebastian Junger

“The antidote to exhaustion is not rest but wholeheartedness.” — David Whyte

“For serving God concerns the Frame of our Spirits, in the whole Course of our Lives; in every occasion we have, in which we may shew our Love to his Law.” — William Penn