Facing The Giants

My mind has been a bit cluttered lately. Cluttered with lots of things. When that happens, blogging is the last thing on my mind. It's just too difficult to try to sort things out enough to be able to make any sense.

However, I remembered my main reason for keeping this record of life... It's to do just that... keep record. Even if it means keeping record of the clutter.

Caleb is home this morning. He has caught yet another cold... UGH! One of his favorite movies is 'Facing The Giants'. He has good taste... It's one of mine too. Needless to say, I haven't been able to stick to my usual list of things to do today. I keep getting sidetracked by what's coming out of the TV. This movie has some of the all time BEST one liners EVER! It's one of the only movies that has the ability to make me cry all the way through.

"If we win, we'll praise Him, but if we lose, we'll still praise Him."

How many times are we given that choice? How many times do we make the choice to praise Him and give Him glory in whatever circumstances we are given? I have to admit, I fail Him a lot in this area. Over the past couple of years, I can see personal growth in this area, but I still have a long way to go.

There are giants in my life that seem almost impossible to defeat. Somedays the giants even seem to appear bigger than on other days. My only job though, is to get out of bed in the morning and give God my best. He will take care of the rest. It doesn't matter if it's relational, financial, past hurt or present... God knows the outcome. When I remember this, the giants shrink. They don't seem so threatening anymore. Facing them head on becomes something I strive to do. In that process, I can praise Him... no matter what.

I think of the miners in Chile. What giants they had before them, but over and over again we hear that their spirits remained good while in there for 69 days. The boys couldn't take their eyes off of CNN yesterday. We were in and out of the house all day, but every time we would come in, they would go straight to the TV to check and see if they had all been rescued yet. At one point, one of the boys asked if they were christian men. I told them all I knew and that was that a lot of the people in Chile are devout catholic people. They believe in a God who loves them and wants to rescue them from this life. I believe that the giants that were before them were made smaller by the fact that there were a lot of people praying for them since the first day. They had to have known that their lives were completely and totally in the hands of God, and that He knew the outcome, even when they didn't. I want to believe that their faith was made stronger (as well as many others) in the pits of that very dark mine.

I'm not thankful to have a sick child at home, but since taking time out to watch this movie with Caleb, I can say that I'm thankful this morning for the reminder of praising God in whatever circumstances. The giants that were crowding my brain have already been made smaller.