Taking on the Giants of the 21st Century

For all of us today and as well as for those generations past, there have always been ”so-called” giants living in our lives.  I’m not talking about the ” fe-fi-fo-fum” kind but more like the Goliath variety – living, real, and apparently invincible obstacles that can often intimidate us into inaction or even get us  running in the completely opposite direction to escape certain doom.   Unlike David, from the Old Testament, who faced a very large and powerful man, by the name of Goliath, in a fight to the death, our giants today are often less physically intimidating but very much similar in their dimensions of being seemingly unbeatable.

However, let me talk a little bit about David’s situation before I get into this any further.   I think there are many important "life lessons"we can learn from this story.  Without turning this into a sermon, since it has been told so well, by so many spiritual people, so many times already, let me try instead to pick out some of the basic lessons we, of any religious belief can learn from this, I believe, very real story.

   

First off David was a young man – so maybe he wasn’t the strongest he would ever be.  However, he was a good shepherd, who loved his sheep, and had fought off many dangerous predators from his flock.  So, he had been physical and tangled with some potentially deadly combatants.   On the other hand, Goliath was literally a giant, and not just a giant but an experienced warrior as well.  Add to that a very belligerent and disrespectful attitude.  Not a pleasant combination anyone on David’s side of the battle wanted anything to deal with.  In fact, many of them cowered at the sound of his vile and booming voice.  But David, nevertheless, didn’t seem to bother with the odds based on the pure appearances of the match up – which were heavily in Goliath’s favor.  Think about it, how could this young man, who was inexperienced in fighting seasoned warriors, ever stand a chance of defeating a giant who was very experienced in killing men of much greater stature and experience.  He had to simply be crazy and out of his mind. 

But that wasn’t the case, in fact, David believed in something more than mere appearances, he felt something deep inside himself, he looked beyond his senses, he believed with all his heart that this giant was his personal call to action.  He could never have satisfactorily explained this feeling to anyone around him at the time – since they were too busy shivering in their boots.  No this evil foe was challenging him, personally, to stand up for what he believed – what he stood for (his love and reverence for God).  Interestingly, without any hesitation David boldly accepted this apparent suicidal challenge.

On that glorious day, many many years ago, what actually tipped the scale in David’s favor, I believe, was his God giving ability to think – and think he did.  He outsmarted his bigger and brawnier opponent with a clever and ingenious idea of the human imagination (thank you God) – a slingshot.  This simple, childlike device in the hand of an experienced user made him more than a match for Goliath.  At a safe distance from Goliath, David trusted in what God had given him the ability to master, this weapon of human ingenuity.  He placed all of his trust in his God given ability to physically project a rock precisely and firmly in the forehead of his unprepared nemesis, bringing him to the ground swiftly in one deliberate and heartfelt shot.   And he did just that, because he knew, in his heart, that if he didn’t face this giant now, he could never expect to be a man that stood for what he believed in, since he was fully capable, with slingshot in hand, of standing up to this situation.  Though he had never before defeated a giant with his weapon, he just had to be fearless and trust, in what his heart told him he was capable of doing.

 

Is this any different in how we can defeat the giants we face today, to be fearless and trust in a solution, a way, that we are fully aware of, that will equip us to overcome and defeat the challenges of this secular society?  No, it is exactly the same.  So what is your solution, game plan, to overcoming the giants in your life?  Do you face them or do you simple run away?  Maybe you just stand there shivering in your boots, waiting for somebody else to defeat your giant.

Don't fear.  God has given you the answer.  Pick up your rock, Jesus, and He will bring you to victory, everytime!