Challenge Your Giants

Many of you, if not ALL of you, are familiar with the Bible story of David and Goliath. Most of us are only familiar with the part of a little boy named David throwing a stone into the head of a big, bad giant. But there's much more to the story than that.

As a little background, the nation of Israel was ruled by the Philistine nation. Israel had been trying to find ways to break free from the Philistines so that they could be an independent nation again. The Philistines had taken Israel's means of making weapons, so the Israelites had to fight with any tools they could find. Weak and quite defenseless, it seemed as if Israel had no hope of breaking free from the Philistine bondage.

But the Philistines did offer Israel ONE chance to be free, and a man named Goliath gave them an offer. Goliath was one of the few "giants" of that time, standing anywhere from 9 feet to 12 feet tall. He was in the military since he was young, and because of his height, he was quite strong. The tip of his spear weighed approximately 20 pounds -- again, that's just the tip!

He challenged the Israelite army to choose a man to fight him one-on-one. If the Israelite man wins, the Philistines would serve Israel as slaves. If Goliath wins, Israel will continue to be in bondage. Of course, nobody took him up on that offer -- except for a shepherd boy named David, who was anywhere from his late teens to early twenties.

Without armor, sword, or shield, David took stones and a sling shot. Using sling shots were actually legitimate weapons used in the military as they could be as dangerous as bullets. Instead of the Y-shaped sling that we're used to, a sling was something that you whirl around really fast until you aim it at a target.

Being arrogant, yet probably insulted because Israel sent a boy to him, Goliath looked at this pretty bog and said, "Am I a dog that you come with me with sticks?" But Goliath figured that this would be an easy fight -- until David shot a stone into his head and used the giant's sword to cut his head off.

This victory gave Israel the courage to go against the rest of the Philistines. David's INSANE courage encouraged others to fight their foes.

The one thing that really sticks out in this story is how easily David slain this giant. In life, we would face many problems that look huge, but once we face them, we would be surprised at how easily we could conquer these giants.

Some of you know that I drive a Toyota Prius. One of the dreaded fears all Prius owners have is the hybrid battery giving out. This is an expensive battery that could cost anywhere from $2,500 to $5,000 to replace. When we bought the Prius used, we knew that replacing that battery would one day become a reality. And sure enough, it did! The battery gave out within about six months of buying the Prius. We did not have the money to replace that battery, and everybody made us scared to try to do any work on the battery ourselves.

But one day, I decided to tackle this issue. I did lots of research on how to work on a hybrid battery, how a battery works, how electricity works, etc. I finally decided it was time. I went to the back of the car, where the battery was, nearly took out the entire interior of the back of the car to remove the battery, and used some muscle to carry that 100-pound-plus battery into the house. From there, I used a battery tester to test out each of the 28 battery cells to see which ones were bad. I found one cell that gave out, but I was suspicious of another cell going bad. So, I spent only $80 to get two cells. After replacing the cells, the hybrid battery worked again. Praise the good Lord!

To me, this was a giant of a problem because of the cost. But once I tackled this problem, it was resolved quicker than I imagined it would be. Actually, it would have been completed even quicker had I not hesitated for so long to do the work. Because of this accomplishment, man, I felt that I could do almost any car repair on my vehicles. I was already doing my own auto work, but after tackling this giant, I really felt like I was "da man."

You see, you gain confidence once you conquer your giants, and the only way to conquer them is to challenge them. Yes, they seem big. Yes, they seem scary. Yes, they seem like they could conquer you. But if you decide to be like David and run TO the giant, not only would you see how quickly this giant falls, but your confidence would significantly increase.

I am not an electrical engineer or a certified auto mechanic. I'm just a guy who decided to tackle a giant. So when I tell others how I fixed my Prius, do you not think that they would have the confidence to do stuff like that? Do you not think that they would have confidence to tackle their auto issues themselves?

It's easy to run from a problem. It's easy to have someone else fix your problems for you. It's SCARY to fight your own problems, especially when they seem huge. They seem scary. They make you pee your pants. They make you want to vomit. But the giant may be quickly conquered once you decide to challenge them.

When I was a child in elementary school, I had my own bully. I had NO idea why this kid had it in for me. But one day in the gym, he grabbed me and held me against a wall. I can't remember what he said, but I looked him in the eyes and asked, "What did I ever do to you?" With that, he looked away and said, "Nothing." Then he let me go, walked away, and never bothered me again. I didn't use force. I didn't threaten to tell on him. I just asked him a simple question, and the problem was fixed.

Not all problems could be resolved so quickly, but you would never know unless you decide to face those problems. You never know how quickly you could lose weight, fix your health issues, fix your money issues, fix your relationship issues, etc., unless you challenge your giants. ​