Before David was a king, he was a fugitive. Saul wanted him dead, and the safest place he could find was a hole in the side of a hill: the cave of Adullam.
David therefore departed from there, and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. Everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered themselves to him; and he became captain over them. There were with him about four hundred men.
1 Samuel 22:1–2
Read that again. David runs and hides, and the people who come looking for him aren’t the powerful or the polished. They’re the ones who are struggling, buried in debt, and fed up. They’re the misfits and the ragamuffins, and David becomes their leader.
Caves make people
David spent a lot of his life in caves. It’s where he wrote some of his most honest prayers. It’s where he learned patience, restraint, and what it means to lead people nobody else wanted. A lot of who he was, and who he became, was developed in the dark.
Most of us have caves too:
- The season after a job, a marriage, or a dream falls apart.
- The stretch where nothing makes sense and nobody seems to notice.
- The quiet place you go when you need to figure out who you really are.
We usually want to get out of those places as fast as we can. But what if the cave is where the real work happens?
Finding your tribe
Here’s the part I love most. David didn’t just survive the cave. He found his people there. Four hundred people who didn’t fit anywhere else showed up and became something together.
That’s the hope for this little corner of the internet. Thoughts from the Cave is a place to share what I’m learning along the journey, as we spend time in the caves of life, becoming the best version of ourselves and stepping into our purpose.
No polished answers. Just marks on the cave wall from someone who’s been there, and an open seat by the fire for whoever wants it.
Pull up a seat
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